An author who lived in St Dogmaels and Poppit Sands has been told today he will go to jail after a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting a six year old girl.

Colin Richard Shearing, aged 70, was told he could have a week to put his affairs in order but that he would receive an immediate jail sentence next Friday (April 17).

Shearing, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and once an active member of Theatre Mwldan, Cardigan, twice assaulted the girl in 1980.

He denied the charges but was convicted unanimously of gross indecency with a child and inciting a child to commit gross indecency.

The woman told the jury he examined her intimately and persuaded her to touch him indecently.

She said the memories of what had happened came back to her many years later.

She was driven to complain, she said, when she discovered Shearing had become involved with a youth theatre and was afraid he would have access to children.

She added that although she did not have any proof she was sure she was not his only victim.

Shearing, who now lives at Taylors Lane, Bosham near Chichester, claimed the incidents had never taken place and said he could not understand why the woman had made the allegations against him.

He agreed that amongst his books there was a passage dealing with children having sex together.

But, he stressed, it was a work of pure fiction.

After the verdicts Judge Huw Davies refused to instruct a probation officer to prepare a pre-sentence report because it would not affect the outcome.

He would be failing in his duty, he added, if he did not send Shearing to jail.

But he understood Shearing had a young family who were unaware of the court case and he should be given the chance to explain what was about to happen to him.

Shearing was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender immediately.

 

UPDATE: Following reports about the court case, Theatr Mwldan released an official statement regarding Shearing.

In it Phil Layton, chairman of the board of directors, said: "Theatr Mwldan as a company and charity was formed in 1992 and to my knowledge, Colin Shearing has never been a member of the organisation and certainly not active in any way."