A man who abused the trust of a teenage girl by supplying her with vodka and then sexually assaulting her has been given a suspended jail sentence.

According to the Swindon Advertiser, Kingston Crown Court was told that in 2011, David Gould, 61, from Swindon, had invited the 16-year-old girl to his home – then in London - given her a large vodka and then put his hand inside her bra.

He pleaded guilty to the offence.

Sentencing him, the Recorder of Richmond-upon-Thames, Judge Peter Lodder KC, told Gould: "You took advantage by inviting her over, plying her with alcohol and sexually assaulting her.

"You were thirty-one years older than her and had separated from your wife and you told her she looked beautiful.

"You invited her to come around and visit you and asked her if she would like a drink, and poured her a very large vodka, without much lemonade.

"She did not have much experience with drinking, and you knew exactly what you were up to.

"You put your hand inside her top and bra. She was uncomfortable and told you so."

Gould received an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and must also complete 280 hours of community service.

He was additionally ordered to complete a 27-day rehabilitation activity requirement, sign the sex offenders register and obey a fifteen-year sexual harm prevention order.

The judge told him : "For many, many, many years she has had to deal with your denials and only recently has had the small consolation of your guilty plea.

"As she put it in her victim impact statement, her childhood ended at the age of 16-years-old. 

"That is what you have done to blight that young girl's life to satisfy your own desires. I am very tempted to send you to prison, and you can consider yourself very lucky."

Gould was charged with this offence after an investigation into separate allegations of sexually abusing a nine-year-old girl in 2018.

He was eventually cleared in relation to that victim, but the sixteen-year-old complainant - now many years older - gave a video-recorded interview to police on 30 March 2023.

Earlier, prosecutor Ravi Dogra told the court that Gould gave the teen a large vodka after she told him the most she usually drank was a small lager shandy.

"He was saying things about her body, her breasts and how she looked. He put his hand inside her top and inside her bra."

In her victim impact statement, the complainant said: "This incident has affected my life and still ripples through everything I do today.

"His compliments about my body now disgust me. I was only a child."

Addressing Gould directly, she told him, "You took advantage and plied me with alcohol to take advantage of me.

"I trusted you, and the things you did that day have had an everlasting effect on me." 

Gould's lawyer Nargees Choudhury told the court the defendant's wife had left him in 2008 - three years before the offence - taking their two children with her.

Choudry added: "He was depressed, suffered panic attacks, had to take time off work and his mental health was at an all-time low.

"He will never forgive himself for what he did. He is absolutely sickened by what he did."