Man jailed over historic child sex crimes

A former Barnard Castle resident has been jailed for a year after being found guilty of historic sex offences.

Stephen Chrystal, of Hackney in Derbyshire, was convicted of 20 cases of indecent assault against three young boys in the 1990s at Durham Crown Court earlier this year.

His sentencing hearing was held at Teesside Crown Court on Friday, May 22.

His defence counsel told the court that Chrystal had grown up in a “brutal” home where his father, a policeman, tormented the children and set them against each other.

The defence added that since leaving Barnard Castle he had turned his life around and had started a family, and became a director of a company employing many people.

She added: “Once he got himself away from Barnard Castle, once he got away from that home life, he was able to develop as a human being and grow as an individual. He also became mayor of his hometown in Derbyshire.

“He was able to become a leader in his community. A man without any violence, without any further history of sexual abuse, a man people looked up to.”

Along with raising his own two children, he had fostered a number of other children, she added.

The defence urged Judge Joanne Kidd to suspend any possible prison sentence.

Ahead of delivering the sentence, Judge Kidd said she had determined that the offending could not have happened before September 1 1990, six weeks before Chrystal’s 18th birthday.

She therefore determined that he was 17 at the time.

She added that any sentence, according to historic sex offence guidelines, should be based on what a court might have ordered at the time of the offending.

Judge Kidd said: “Until 1995, however surprising it may seem now, indecent assault was not classed as a grave crime. That is historic legal term, it does not mean the offending is not serious.”

She added that the spirit of the law in the early 1990s was that anyone under the age of 18 who committed such a crime should not be given more than a maximum of 12 months in prison.

Judge Kidd said Chrystal had not shown mercy to his victims, who would have been aged seven to 10 at the time when he committed the crime, and he had not shown them mercy now as he had not pleaded guilty forcing them to endure a trial.

The judge said: “The three victims in this case felt helpless, because they were helpless, and the ongoing psychological damage that that brought to each of their lives. It has been devastating for them personally, for their relationships moving forward, and with their relationships with each other.

“While you got on with your life and turned over a new page, the devastation of your actions is not forgot by your victims.

“I was urged to consider a suspended sentence, to reflect behaviour as an adult. I cannot do so. Bearing in mind the circumstance of this case, it is so serious that only immediate imprisonment can be passed.”

The judge imposed a 12-month prison sentence and ordered that Chrystal’s name be added to the sex offenders register for 10 years.