Perverted Castleford pensioner masturbated in front of vulnerable female '50 or 60 times'

Pervert David Gardener even tried “buy her silence” by telling her she would not be able to do activities she liked if she told anyone, Leeds Crown Court heard. The 67-year-old admitted three counts of engaging in sexual activity in presence of a mentally-disordered person.

The female, who cannot be named for legal reasons, became more withdrawn than unusual until a family member asked her what was wrong, and she confessed. She said he had told her that he watched porn which fuelled his fantasies, but said he never touched her or asked her to touch him, although she said it made her feel “embarrassed and gross”.

The police were called and Gardener was arrested, even telling officers that he was expecting them and knew why they were there, prosecutor Andrew Semple told the court.

Gardener, of Chiltern Avenue, Castleford, said he had masturbated in front of the woman dozens of times, and was “disgusted” with himself. He told officers that he thought she was “okay” and bizarrely claimed she did not mind him masturbating in front of her.

Mitigating, Laura Addy said Gardener was not “deluded” about what he had done and that his best mitigation was perhaps his early guilty pleas and frank confessions he made to the police.

She said: “It’s rare you see guilty pleas offered [in such cases]. In those circumstances he has been very candid. He regrets how he behaved and the impact he has had. In short, he says ‘I hate myself’.”

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Miss Addy said he was in remission from prostate cancer, and he had been suicidal.

Judge Richard Mansell KC told Gardener that he had tried to “buy her silence” and added: “She was highly vulnerable to exploitation, and that’s exactly what you did, you exploited her for your own sexual gratification.”

He jailed him for 32 months and put him on the sex offender register for life.