"Did you think I'd be too young to remember?" victim asks paedophile who abused her when she was young girl
Paedophile abused girl before she reached the age of six, court hears
“Did you think I was too young to be able to remember what you did to me?” a sex abuse survivor asked the paedophile who assaulted her before she reached the age of six.
Predatory paedophile Alan Torr was already serving a 16-year prison sentence for sex offences committed against two other children, when he admitted a string of further historic crimes committed against a Sheffield girl.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Torr forced the young child to touch him through holes he cut into pairs of jogging bottoms.
As he was handed a further four years behind bars, Torr, now 78, was made to listen to the devastating impact of his abuse through the complainant’s powerful statement, in which she addressed Torr directly.
She told him: "You've made me feel worthless, you've made me feel like I don't deserve a childhood…Did you think I was too young to be able to remember what you did to me?"
"You were willing to ruin a little girl's life for your own benefit."
The complainant also revealed she had tried to take her own life as a result of the abuse.
Torr’s abuse of her was finally exposed after a teacher at the girl’s school noticed she appeared upset and “agitated” during a sex education lesson, prosecutor Laura Marshall told the court.
After the teacher checked on the complainant, who is entitled to lifelong anonymity, she disclosed the abuse she had endured.
Ms Marshall said the complainant’s young age at the time meant she was unable to pinpoint the exact period of the abuse but was able to narrow it down to when she was aged between three and five-years-old.
Torr, now of HMP Marshgate, Doncaster, was subsequently charged with and pleaded guilty to six sex offences, including: causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and assaulting a girl under 13 by touching.
Ms Marshall suggested it was telling that Torr’s response to learning of the complainant’s allegations was to express disappointment that his hopes of being released soon would now not be realised.
But Judge Thomas said Torr had the opportunity to disclose the abuse when he admitted to the sexual abuse of two other children for which he was sentenced at the same court in 2023.
Judge Thomas noted, however, that Torr is now in poor health due to conditions including Parkinson’s and is isolated in custody due to the nature of his offending.
He also accepted that Torr now feels remorse for his offending.
Passing down the additional four years, Judge Thomas said he believed it was “frankly unrealistic” to suggest that Torr should receive a concurrent sentence, given the “extreme psychological” trauma caused to the complainant.
He made Torr the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, and said he must also remain on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
*Please note: South Yorkshire Police said they do not hold a custody image of Torr due to him attending a voluntary interview. West Yorkshire Police, who investigated Torr in relation to his earlier sex offence convictions, have declined to provide a custody image because it relates to a different set of proceedings.