A CHILD abuser walked free from court because his victim was so traumatised she could not talk about her ordeal for 40 years, York Crown Court heard.

Paul Brian Tune, formerly of Selby, would have been jailed for a “very long time” had he been prosecuted shortly after his repeated serious sex crimes on a teenage girl, said Recorder Colin Burn.

But because they happened 40 years ago, among other reasons, he could pass a suspended prison term of 12 months. The court heard suspended sentences did not exist for people like Tune in the years when he was abusing the girl.

Tune, 62, who now lives in Solihull, had pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of a serious sexual assault against a teenage girl.

He did not comment as he walked free from court. Provided he does not re-offend in the next two years, he will not have to serve the sentence. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

The judge, along with barristers for the prosecution and defence, researched the law in detail before he passed his sentence.

Recorder Burn said the “exceptional circumstances” that enabled him to suspend the sentence were the length of time since the crimes, the circumstances in which they occurred and Tune’s present state of health.

Tune’s crimes took place in the 1960s when he was growing up in Selby and he was in his teens.

Colin Harvey, mitigating, said Tune’s parents had effectively abandoned him and he was brought up by an alcoholic grandmother who would lock him out of the house while she was in the pub. He said since the offences Tune had led a blameless life, serving in the RAF and telecommunications industry.