Claire Harden-Frost successfully prosecuted this 79 year old defendant for historic sex offences against 3 victims.
The defendant was today sentenced to a total of 16 years imprisonment for multiple offences of rape. The three victims were aged between 3 and 16 at the time of the offences which took place in the 1980s and 1990s.
Harold Gibbons was found guilty after a 4 week trial by a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court of 8 counts of sexual abuse spanning two decades. At the time of committing the offences he had already been convicted of 4 sex offences against children aged between 7 and 8 years and had served periods of imprisonment for these crimes.
Claire acted for the Crown Prosecution Service.
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This article is written by Max Melsa as part of the August 2026 edition of the Family Law Dekagram (newsletter). I had the privilege of being involved in Re D (Children: Interim Care Order: Hair Strand Testing) [2024] EWCA Civ 498 in which the Court…
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