Yapton councillor quits after sex shame
A Yapton parish councillor dramatically resigned on Wednesday (May 25) after his sex offence shame became known. Peter Hill Jones quit from the council just after being re-elected with 439 votes for a further four years.
He had become a member of the council's planning committee and the panel which oversees the running of its King George V playing field.
He joined the parish council in 2003 and survived the elections in 2007 before he stood again on May 5. But his fellow councillors were unaware he was a convicted sex offender who was found guilty of subjecting a 15-year-old girl to two indecent assaults which a judge described as terrifying.
David Tansley, the parish council's clerk, said the council was unaware of the situation until the past week. The council involved the police, who spoke to the complainant.
"Peter Hill Jones, who was re-elected as a parish councillor for the Yapton Village ward of Yapton Parish Council at the elections held on May 5, has since submitted his resignation as a councillor and this has been accepted." said Mr Tansley.
Burndell Road resident, Hill-Jones, who was re-elected as Peter Jones, told the Observer before his resignation he did not want to discuss his offences. He said "No comment. I have got nothing to say."
It was on April 18, 1996, that Mr Hill Jones, then aged 45, entered a room in which the teenage girl was sleeping. He had been drinking and taking drugs. At about 4am, she woke to find Hill-Jones indecently assaulting her by touching her leg in bed. He then asked her to lift up her top. Her protests failed to stop him pulling up her bra and touching her breasts to commit one indecent assault. Hill-Jones went on to touch her genitals to commit a further indecent assault.
Mr Justice Ognall's judgment states "In the course of being in her company and doing what he did, he told her that if she did not stop making a noise or saying whatever she was saying, he was going to rape her and get her pregnant." "She must, on any common sense view, have found that an extremely distressing if not terrifying period."
Mr Justice Ognall said Hill-Jones seemed to have stayed in the girl's room for about two hours. She believed Hill-Jones had been drinking. She revealed what had happened when she was going to school with a friend, also aged 15, later that morning.
"When interviewed by the police about the matter, he denied any sexual assault." said Mr Justice Ognall "He [Hill-Jones] professed he had no sexual feelings towards the girl. He told the officer that he was drunk that night, having consumed, as he said, three-quarters of a bottle of gin coupled with amphetamines."
He failed to mention his convictions on his official papers which all councillors have to complete.
Ian Sumnall, Arun District Council's returning officer, oversees all parish council elections in the district. He said "We were never made aware of any previous convictions. We have to take our statement of persons nominated forms at face value. If they had been challenged by a member of the public, or we had been notified, we would have investigated and taken legal advice."
He explained the Electoral Commission rules state a person is disqualified from becoming a councillor if he was convicted less than five years before his election, or afterwards, to a prison sentence of at least three months without the option of a fine. There is no distinction between the offences to which a conviction relates.
Peter Hill-Jones was sentenced at Chichester Crown Court on March 20, 1997, to three years in jail after being acquitted of a further allegation of trying to open the girl's legs with his hand.
His sentence was later reduced to two years at an Appeal Court hearing on October 17, 1997.
Prolific sex offender sent back to prison after victim comes forward to reveal more abuse
A man jailed 20 years ago for sexually abusing a young girl has been sent back to prison for further abuse against her and another girl. Peter Hill Jones was jailed for three years in 1996 but his victim came forward again in 2013 to reveal the full extent of what he had done to her.
The first victim came forward for the second time after learning he had been convicted in 2013 of possessing child pornography images, telling police about abuse that took place over a period of five years before his 1996 conviction.
The second victim came forward independently in 2014, recalling strikingly similar abuse.
One victim, whose identity is protected by law, spoke this week of her long, painful fight for justice and thanked police. She said "There were times when I thought I could not cope, but that would have meant he was winning so I kept telling myself – don't let him win. I never gave up and all was worth it as justice has been done."
As Hill Jones pleaded not guilty, both victims, although now adults, had to give evidence and relive their traumatic childhood experiences.
He was eventually found guilty on August 3, after an eight-day trial at Lewes Crown Court.
On Friday the 63-year-old, of Burndell Hill, Yapton, near Bognor, was jailed for 17 years after being found guilty of: