Fareham child rapist who inflicted “anger, embarrassment and shame” on boy is spared jail

Alan Gomes, 39, of Hollybrook Gardens, Locks Heath, was given a three-year community order after admitting raping and inciting a boy under 16 to commit an act of gross indecency. 

The offences took place on the same occasion in around 2001 in Warsash when “immature” Gomes was still a child aged 16, but Portsmouth Crown Court heard had the “emotional and developmental” age of someone who was aged between 11 and 14. The defendant was sentenced on this basis and the fact he was a child and not an adult at the time of the offences.

The court heard how the victim was “scared and wary” of Gomes when he was suddenly attacked more than two decades ago, with the defendant “forcing himself” upon the young boy, prosecutor Matthew Lawson said.

A victim statement read out to the court revealed how the now adult male still suffers from his ordeal after “repressing” and “hiding” his dark “secret” until his mum told the police after he confided in her. “What Alan did to me that day is always in the back of my head. I can never escape it,” he said.

The complainant went on to say how he turned to drugs and alcohol to “escape” and was “always in trouble”.  The victim said he felt “anger, embarrassment and shame” over the years before adding: “You took my innocence away and destroyed my childhood.” 

After carrying the torment round for over 20 years the man said he still suffers from night terrors and “wakes up scared like a child”.

Daniel Reilly, defending, said Gomes suffered from “learning difficulties” and “emotional immaturity. The lawyer said Gomes suffered from a developmental delay of between three to five years, according to psychologists.

Judge Michael Bowes KC told Gomes: “This (offending) had a very severe effect on the victim, it obviously had a marked effect on his life. It caused substantial psychological harm and he still bears the scars of that day.”

But the judge stressed that despite the “profound effect” on the victim, he was sentencing Gomes as the “child you were at the time”. A psychologist assessment of Gomes’ age being in the range of 11 to 14 years at the time of the offences was accepted by both defence and prosecution.

Judge Bowes agreed with a probation report that a community punishment was the best sentence for “vulnerable” Gomes, adding: “I am satisfied a court would not have imposed a custodial sentence (had Gomes been sentenced when he was a child) and would have imposed a youth rehabilitation order.”

Gomes, who has no other convictions to his name, was handed a three-year community order with 60 rehabilitation days and 200 hours of unpaid work and was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.