A "caring" dad-of-two who spent his adult life hiding a terrible secret had an appeal bid thrown out by the courts.
Philip Boardman, who worked in various healthcare and NHS jobs, was jailed for four years in April after being convicted of four counts of indecent assault against a very young boy, which took place in the St Helens area in the early 1990s, when the 45-year-old was between 14 and 17.
Boardman, previously of Winstanley Close in Great Sankey, Warrington, was described by his family as a "caring" father and husband, but as he lived a "happy and productive" life his victim was condemned to mental torment. During the sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, prosecutor Geoffrey Lowe read out a harrowing statement from the victim.
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He said: "What happened in my youth destroyed my mental health and my mental health has been a constant obstacle to everything else in my life.
"I have no happy time to get back to. I have no future to focus on. I have never been unafraid or felt safe. I've never been happy. I have never had a good opinion of the world or the people in it. I trust no one and never relax or let my guard down. That's what it did to me." Trial Judge David Swinnerton told Boardman: "That is what you did to him."
The trial heard that Boardman crept into bed with the boy and molested him, on on two occasion raped him orally. Judge Swinnerton noted guidelines at the time for a 17-year-old defendant set a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison.
However, Judge Swinnerton said Boardman's culpability, and the "severe psychological harm" he caused his victim, would not be "adequately reflected" by a 12-month term. Judge Swinnerton said he had heard both the victim and Boardman giving evidence about the "grave offences".
Boardman, who sobbed as he was sent down, later applied for leave to appeal which was denied by a single judge. However he applied again, with Steven Swift, defending, arguing that the judge was wrong to increase the sentence from the maximum set at the time of the offending.
The court heard Judge Swinnerton had said if Boardman was an adult committing the offences now, then he would have jailed him for around 16 years.
The Court of Appeal agreed with Judge Swinnerton's analysis. Lord Justice William Davis, in a written ruling, said: "[Judge Swinnerton] had seen [The victim] give evidence. This enabled him to reach a clear view as to the level of harm suffered, as described in his victim personal statement.
"For us to interfere with the judge's sentence in this case, we would have to be persuaded that the conclusion reached by him was not one reasonably open to him. Mr Swift's submission, put simply, is that we should reach that conclusion.
"This submission could only succeed if we were sure that the judge plainly had fallen into error. We are quite satisfied that we cannot reach this conclusion. Indeed, we are satisfied that he did not fall into error."
Leave to appeal was again denied.
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