A 45-year-old former nursery worker, the Speedwell Paedophile Jamie White, who claimed to have no recollection of being registered as a sex offender two decades prior, has been convicted of abusing a four-year-old child from Gloucester while babysitting her.
Last week, Gloucester Crown Court was informed that the child’s mother was astonished when her daughter disclosed the abuse perpetrated by Jamie White, and subsequently appalled to discover that he had previously received a police caution for analogous offences.
The Gloucester woman had placed her trust in Jamie White, whom she was acquainted with, and was oblivious to his five-year registration on the Sex Offender Register for the indecent assault of a nine-year-old girl in 2003.
Jamie White had also been accused of a similar offence in 1995 when he was working for a childrens nursery, the court was told.
Jamie White, now of Atlas Close, Speedwell, Bristol, denied sexual assault of the four year old girl when he was baby-sitting her and a sibling on Feb 20th 2020 in Gloucester.
But he was convicted last Thursday (Feb 23) and bailed to await sentence in April.
The jury of eleven – nine men and two women – saw the four year old girl describe in a video-recorded interview how White had licked her on the genitals while baby-sitting.
The jury heard that Jamie White and his partner had babysat the children several times.
Prosecutor Christopher Smyth said: “White arrived at the woman’s house by himself at 1.30pm on Feb 20th 2020 and she told him that she would be back at around 7pm. This was the first time he had babysat the children on his own.
“When the mother arrived home everything seemed normal and the children were playing happily together. White left the house at 8.25pm that evening and the mother took the children upstairs to bed.
“The mother asked her daughter if she had a good day and she replied ‘Yes…and no.’ Her mother queried this and the young girl said that Jamie had hit her in the face with a cloth.
“She quizzed her daughter, asking if this was while they were playing? She replied ‘maybe’. The little girl then said ‘Jamie licked my vulva,’ a word she had been taught about the anatomy of her body.
“The mother was horrified by this and asked if she was telling the truth and she added that people could get into trouble for saying things like that. The girl said it was true.
“The mother then texted Jamie White saying that he’d left his scarf behind and added that her daughter had been telling her ‘some pretty serious stuff.’
“He replied ‘What stuff?’in a bid to get more information. The mother did not respond.
The following morning Jamie White contacted the woman and said ‘I know I have done nothing.’ He added ‘If I am being accused of something, I have the right to know.’
The woman told Jamie White that he and his partner would not be babysitting the children again as their trust was gone
I’m not accusing you of anything, yet, but I want the full story,” she said.
When Jamie White was giving evidence, the judge, Recorder Anthony Hawks, asked him “If you hadn’t said anything inappropriate or done anything untoward, what do you think you were being accused of?”
Jamie White replied: “I don’t know, that’s why I kept asking. I didn’t think it was anything sexual.”
The jury heard that Jamie White told the mother he had been checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service and that he was clear.
The jury were told that because Jamie White had previously been placed on the sex offenders register for five years in 2003 that would have been flagged up but the mother would not have known this.
The mother contacted social services about her daughter’s allegations and while she was on hold to them on the phone the four-year-old told her ‘Jamie told me not to tell anyone, but I’m telling you because I am a good girl’.
“Having reported the incident to the safeguarding team, the police become involved and the young girl was interviewed by trained offers the following day,” said Mr Smyth.
While Jamie White was being cross examined by Mr Smyth during his evidence he denied that he had ever appeared at the court before.
He was repeatedly asked by the prosecutor if he did not remember accepting a police caution in January 2003 after admitting a charge of indecently assaulting a nine-year-old girl.
The case had not gone to trial because the girl’s father had been reluctant to put her through the ordeal of giving evidence, the prosecutor said.
Mr Smyth also pointed out to Smyth that on the same day he had accepted the caution he had been jailed for 18 months for attempting to obtain pecuniary advantage by deception by trying to get a job at a local children’s nursery.
“This would have been a significant day in your life,” Mr Smyth said.
The jury also heard about the suspicions that social services had while Jamie White was working for another nursery in Gloucester in 1995 and had allegedly molested a four-year-old girl.
However, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to take the case to court because the girl was so young and it would be an ordeal for her to give evidence in court.
White told the police in his interview that he had played with the children and said that when she had run upstairs to the bedroom he had tickled the four-year-old and that he hadn’t licked her at all.
He was asked, ‘Are you attracted to children?’ White replied, ‘No’. ‘
Asked if fantasised over young girls he denied that he did and added ‘I’ve always got on with children. I’m not sexually interested in young girls, I am not interested in children in anyway.’
“What’s your sexual orientation?” he was asked. ” A beautiful 25-year-old blonde haired girl,” he replied.
Jamie White told the jury he was annoyed when the Gloucester mother told him she did not want him to baby sit for her daughter any more and added: “I didn’t know what I was being accused of. I thought that was the end of it.
“The first thing I knew about the sexual allegations is when the police knocked my door.
“I didn’t say anything to the girl that she should not tell anybody about what happened because nothing happened. I didn’t lick her when she was naked or over or under her clothing, not even inadvertently.”
Pina Silvio, defending Jamie White, asked him about receiving a caution in 2003 for a sexual allegation on a nine-year-old girl.
“I was working at a snooker club in Gloucester and got to know a particular family with young children very well. I ending looking after them on several occasions. It was a baby-sitting situation at their home when the allegations happened. I denied the sexual allegations but I accepted the caution. I don’t even remember being in this court before,” he said.
The judge pointed out to Jamie White that he couldn’t have been given a caution, unless he had admitted the offence. White said he had done nothing wrong and claimed that he had been acquitted.
White continued to deny to the lawyers that he had been in Gloucester Crown Court before.
Ms Silvio told Jamie White: “This is a matter of record. You had to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years.”
The jury took just one hour and 20 minutes to reach their guilty verdict. Jamie White will be sentenced on April 5 and he was released on unconditional bail.
Following his conviction Jamie White was placed on the sex offenders register and the length of his registration will be clarified when he is sentenced.
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