Jailed: 20 years for "sexual predator" Kenneth Freemantle (From Bournemouth Echo)

Jailed: 20 years for "sexual predator" Kenneth Freemantle

11:01am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News

Kenneth Freemantle

A SERIAL sexual abuser who assaulted women and girls in the Poole area for three decades has been jailed for 20 years this morning.

Kenneth Freemantle, 56, of Fortuneswell, Portland, was found guilty of two rapes, 10 indecent assaults and one sexual assault at Bournemouth Crown Court in January.

He had pleaded not guilty to the historic allegations, some of which involved girls under the age of 18.

All of his victims are now adults, and cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The court heard how one of his young victims was given a sexually transmitted disease after she was raped by Freemantle.

In her evidence, she said he made her feel “worthless”.

Another victim said he punched her in the face, giving her a black eye, which Freemantle claimed was the result of “an accident during play fighting”.

The injury was so serious that she was forced to seek hospital treatment.

She told the court during the trial: “I was so embarrassed - I felt ashamed.”

In all, Freemantle was convicted of 13 counts and his sentences ranged from 14 years to 12 months.

He will serve a 14-year and a six-year sentence consecutively and the other sentences will run concurrently.

Freemantle’s victims were in tears in court as the sentence was handed down.

Judge Peter Johnson said: “You, it seems to me Freemantle, have no sexual boundaries whatsoever. You have been and remain a sexual predator.

“The normal standards of behaviour applicable in society do not seem to apply to you, so you think.”

Freemantle was also handed an indefinite sexual offences prevention order.