A child rapist convicted of sexually abusing two girls has been told he might die in prison after being sentenced to 26 years. Alan Batchelor, aged 73, started preying on the girls when they were aged just three and six.
He made one child watch porn before subjecting her to sickening abuse over a number of years and even filmed some of his assaults. He caused both girls severe psychological trauma, which still torments them in adulthood.
During the sentence at Exeter Crown Court, proceedings had to be delayed while Batchelor suffered a panic attack in the dock. But the judge said he had shown little or no remorse for his depraved actions.
The offences came to light in 2022. Batchelor, of Vale Road, Kingskerswell, admitted some of his crimes but the most serious offences, including multiple counts of oral rape, attempted rape and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity went to trial where a jury found the defendant guilty.
Judge David Evans said: “You admitted the least part of the abuse. The abuse you perpetrated affected every single aspect of their lives and does even today.
“You robbed them of their childhoods and rendered their adult lives radically different than how they otherwise would have been. You caused each of them severe psychological harm in their different ways.”
Some of the offences happened in Swindon and some after Batchelor moved to Devon in 2011, the court heard. Judge Evans said the victims were too young to understand at the time that what Batchelor was making them do was wrong.
The court was read moving victim personal statements outlining the trauma Batchelor caused. One victim said she wanted to speak out because she feared other girls or women would fall victim to Batchelor and “the horrors that went on”.
She feels sadness and anger over what happened and has made attempts on her own life due to her mental struggles. “My quality of life as an adult is vastly different from other people,” she said.
The second victim said she too had suffered sever psychological damage. At the time of the abuse she wondered “whether this was the way the world was meant to be.”
Batchelor was convicted in 1965, aged just 14, for indecently assaulting a child under 14, the court heard, but had led a law-abiding life since then. Emily Pitts, defending, said he had made partial confessions and is in ill-health.
Batchelor’s sentence was made up of 25 years and one extra year to be served on licence should he ever be released alive.