Computer repair man from Dursley convicted of molesting teenage girls (From Gazette Series)

Computer repair man from Dursley convicted of molesting teenage girls

2:30pm Monday 24th May 2010

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A COMPUTER repair man has been warned to expect jail after a jury convicted him of molesting two teenage girls when he called at their homes to fix their PCs.

Julian Cope, 46, of Orchard Leaze, Dursley, was also found guilty of breaching a sexual offences prevention order made against him in 2008 after an earlier sex assault on a girl of 14.

Bailing Cope until July 2 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared, Judge William Hart said: "You should not infer that I am likely to do anything on the next occasion other than pass a sentence of immediate imprisonment on you.

"It seems to me that custody is virtually inevitable so you should not go away under any illusions."

He made it a condition of Cope's bail that he reports on Mondays and Fridays every week to Dursley police station.

And he re-assured the jury that Cope's employers had not been aware that he was a convicted sex offender. In fact, he said, Cope faces proceedings at the magistrates court on June 2 for allegedly obtaining his employment without divulging that he was subject to a sex offences prevention order.

The sexual offences prevention order banned him from being in company with children under 16 unless a parent of appropriate adult is present.

Cope had denied sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl on June 10, 2009 and sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl on August 27 last year. He also denied being in breach of the SOPO on that date because the girl was under-age and unaccompanied.

At the start of the trial, Christopher Quinlan, prosecuting, told the court Cope was working for a company called Getronics which had a contract to repair faulty Dell machines in the area.

"During both visits to the two girls he 'sexually molested, touched or assaulted both of them,' said Mr Quinlan.

Later, said Mr Quinlan, the girl got an email from Dell asking about the standards of service she had received. She told Dell something of what the engineer had done to her, complaining that she had 'paid £29 to get my leg touched.'

But Cope had told the jury the allegations were untrue and he had not touched either of the girls in the way they claimed.

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