A WOMAN has been jailed for 12 years for sexually abusing a young boy for more than six years in Cirencester.

Kim Bailey, aged 40, formerly of Cirencester but now of Blackpool, was found guilty by a jury at Gloucester Crown Court earlier this year of 20 non-recent sex offences against a boy.

Bailey had pleaded not guilty to all 20 charges but was convicted of them all by the jury at Gloucester Crown Court (sitting in Cirencester) following a trial which started on Monday, April 17 and ended on Tuesday, April 25.

The charges included four counts of gross indecency with a child, five counts of gross indecency with a child, two charges of sexual activity with a child and two charges of indecent assault of a male child.

She appeared in Cirencester Courthouse via a video link from Eastwood Park Prison in Gloucestershire to be sentenced by judge Malcolm Gibney on Tuesday, October 24.

During the sentencing, the judge told Bailey: "What began as touching escalated to full intercourse."

Prosecutor Charles Thomas said the victim continued to suffer flashbacks and highlighted the serious impact the abuse had had on him.

Gibney passed sentences of between six months and 12 years for each of the 20 offences but said they would all run concurrently with each other, making a total of 12 years.

He told Bailey she would have to serve two-thirds of the sentence before being released on parole licence and ordered her to sign the sex offender register for life.

The judge also made an order prohibiting her from working with children or vulnerable adults.

Pina Silvio, defending, asked the court to consider that Bailey had never offended before the abuse of the boy and had not re-offended since.
 
She asked the court also to take into account Bailey's own mental and psychological impairments and disorders which reduced her culpability for what she had done.

"They may have impaired her ability to make proper judgements and to understand the nature and consequences of her actions," added the advocate.