Former warden receives suspended sentence for child abuse

A former house warden at a Merseyside care home has received a
suspended sentence for physically and sexually abusing a boy in his
care.

Thomas Lees was found guilty on one charge of indecent assault
and one of child cruelty at Liverpool Crown Court. He was cleared
of three charges of indecently assaulting another boy and three
charges of cruelty to a third boy. He was sentenced to 12 months’
imprisonment suspended for two years, put on the sex offenders’
register, and banned from working with children.

He suspended the prison sentence for several reasons – because
Lees committed the offences more than 20 years ago, his age, ill
health and the recent death of his wife.

Judge Denis Clark said: “When you sexually or physically abuse a
child you set in place an emotional time bomb which can explode at
any time in the future and risk starting a cycle of events over
which they have no control.”

The offences occurred at a children’s home, also a school, which
cannot be named for legal reasons.