South Yorkshire sex offender spared from more time behind bars after abusing teenager

Sheffield Crown Court heard on March 1 how Jeff Rodgers, aged 58, of Hayfield Walk, Kimberworth Park, Rotherham, sexually abused the complainant during a period of over more than a year until May 2006 when the complainant was a young teenager.

Ian Goldsack, prosecuting, said the complainant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, alerted police in 2019 and stated that he now has difficulties trusting anyone and he has struggled to maintain relationships.

Mr Goldsack said: “He finds it very difficult to come to terms with what happened and it has affected his relationships later in life.”

He added the complainant was friends with the defendant’s family and he stayed at Rodgers’s home when he was abused.

Mr Goldsack added Rodgers massaged the complainant and warned if people upset him he would take their knee caps off with a bat.

The defendant also told the complainant to sit on his knees and have a cuddle, according to Mr Goldsack, and on one occasion the complainant found himself falling asleep in the defendant’s lap and later noticed the defendant was looking around his pyjama bottoms.

Mr Goldsack said the defendant was in the habit of rubbing and kissing and asking for a cuddle according to the complainant.

The complainant revealed the defendant made him masturbate while watching pornographic videos with a towel covering their private parts and he claimed the defendant gave him half a Viagra tablet.

Mr Goldsack added Rodgers also persuaded the complainant to place his private parts in a drink at a party and after being given alcohol the defendant performed oral sex on the complainant.

Rodgers pleaded guilty to two counts of gross indecency with a child, two counts of inciting a boy aged under 16 to engage in a sexual activity, one count of engaging in a sexual activity in the presence of a child and one count of engaging in a sexual act with a boy.

The court heard Rodgers has previous convictions including a conviction for five sexual offences against three young males for which he received a custodial sentence in 2010.

Paul Canfield, defending, said the offences concerning the latest complainant are from the same period as this previous conviction.

Mr Canfield added that Rodgers has not re-offended since he was released from prison and the risk of him re-offending is regarded as being low.

He said: “He has not re-offended since his release and he has not sought any opportunity to do so either.”

Judge Michael Slater recognised Rodgers’s offending was tied in with his previous behaviour and that the defendant has already served a prison sentence and has since set about trying to rehabilitate himself.

He told Rodgers: “The risk I run is putting you back in prison and turning you into the man you were in 2010.”

Judge Slater sentenced Rodgers to two years of custody suspended for two years with an indefinite restraining order to keep away from the complainant.

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