Court’s warning for a man who threatened child

10:50am Friday 18th July 2008

A MAN who put masking tape over a child’s mouth because he became frightened while playing with a dog in a garden was ordered to pay the victim £500 compensation.

Jason Dossett, 35, also made the child, who was aged between seven and eight at the time, walk down the street with the tape on his face.

During a second incident Dossett swiped a knife across his own throat, then told the terrified victim: “This is what is going to happen to you some day.”

At Basildon Crown Court yesterday Recorder David Holborn also sentenced Dossett to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, ordered him to carry out 200 hours unpaid work for the community and pay £500.

Recorder Holborn told him: “I hope you understand that what you did was a nasty and wicked thing to do to a young child.”

He accepted the offence was not the most serious of its kind and the victim and his family had now left the area, but he warned Dossett that if he breached the order he faced jail.

Dossett, of Flemings Farm Road, Leigh, pleaded guilty to cruelty to a person under 16 between January 1, 2003 and October 1, 2006.

After the court case, Jill Paice, an NSPCC spokeswoman said: “While we are unable to comment on this specific case, the NSPCC believes sentences for offences against children should be appropriate to the crimes committed and should reflect the harm and long-term impact on children and young people.”

EDITOR'S CHOICE

EDITOR'S CHOICE