Towersey sex offender faces prison

A TOWERSEY man was today told by a judge to expect a prison sentence, after he was found guilty of two sexual offences against an 8 year-old boy.

Richard Nicholas Templar Graves, known as Nick Graves, of Manor Road, Towersey, near Thame, shook his head as the jury foreman announced a unanimous verdict on two counts. The child’s mother wept with relief as she heard the verdict.

Graves was found guilty of the offences of Sexual activity with a child, and Causing or inciting a child under 13 years to engage in sexual activity.

Ordering Graves to return for sentencing on or around June 19, 2009, Judge Julian Hall told him: “I must warn you that imprisonment is very much on my mind.”

In his eveidence Graves said: “I did not do anything of which I am shamed or would not have done in front of anyone else. I was simply tickling (the child) which I had done before and he had liked it.”

He insisted that if he did touch the boy, when feeling to see if his boxer shorts were dry after a swim in Grave’s pool, it had been “entirely accidental.”

Evidence from the child himself, the boy’s father and sisters and cousins however, recounting the child’s reporting of events to them, convinced the jury of Grave’s guilt.

Nick Graves himself is well-known in the village of Towersey, particularly for his contribution to the annual village pantomime, and has also been both a rugby and a cricket coach locally.

He was ordered by the judge to sign the Sex Offenders’ register before leaving court today.