November 2012

Couple jailed for sex abuse

A woman whose sex offender husband preyed upon a schoolgirl reported him to police and was jailed as well.

Philip Roden, 64, was arrested last year when his 59-year-old wife, Elizabeth, called police and told them of offences he had committed in the 1980s.

But she was arrested too when a second victim came forward and revealed how she (Elizabeth Roden) had once abused him.

A jury at Northampton Crown Court heard the children involved, who are now adults, had never lodged complaints with the police and only did so after Elizabeth Roden had drunkenly called the police.

The pair, of Castle Ashby Road, Yardley Hastings, were unanimously convicted last month.

Philip Roden, who was found guilty of seven indecent assaults, was jailed for four years by Recorder Christopher Donnellan QC, who ordered he be on the sex offenders’ register and subject to a sexual offences’ prevention order for the rest of his life.

Elizabeth Roden was convicted of three cruelty offences and was jailed for three years.

John Lloyd-Jones, prosecuting, said: “He is not a defendant who says he has now realised the error of his ways. This is a defendant who is still entirely in denial.”

Sentencing, the judge said: “Despite clear warnings at the time, your behaviour did not end. This was persistent and repeated behaviour, in gross breach of trust.”