Businessman jailed over sexual abuse he carried out as a baby

A successful businessman has been jailed for five years after it was revealed he put a young girl through a ‘thunderous deluge of sexual abuse’ when he was a child himself.

Aidan Treglown, now 32, did not show any emotion as a judge described his behaviour as ‘manupulative and callous’ in front of his whole family who filled the public gallery in support.

The court heard how he had not only abused the girl in his childhood but tried to silence her by attempting to take his own life to ‘gain sympathy’.

Treglown, who is now married and the founder of a successful property management company based in Cornwall, was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting the victim when she was between the ages of eight and 12 years, and he was aged between 11 and 15 years old.

Judge Emma Nott, sentencing at Reading Crown Court, told the defendant that despite his young age at the time, he knew full well his behaviour was unwanted.

She said: ‘Sometimes, the passage of time highlights the severity of the harm caused – and this is one such case.

‘You successfully groomed your victim not only into sexual abuse – but into keeping silent about it.

‘It was a consistent and predatory course of conduct that your pursued and pressed when she made it clear that your behaviour was unwanted and she did not consent.

‘When she was finally able to stop you, she was just a few months younger than you when you began to abuse her – at the age approaching 12, she told you that she knew what you were doing was criminally wrong.

‘She consented to nothing that you did to her – and even as a young teenager you knew she was complying and not fully consenting.’

The court heard from prosecutor Jollyon Robertson that the abuse began in the spring of 2008, when the girl was only aged eight years and Treglown was aged just 11 years.

The sexual abuse began with ‘kissing’ and ‘touching’ and escalated over the years.

The abuse stopped when the victim approached the age of 12 and began to threaten to reveal what Treglown was doing, Judge Nott told the court.

The defendant, who appeared in court via video link, freshly shaved and sporting a blue polo shirt, had previously denied one count of rape and two counts of assault by penetration.

During his trial at Reading Crown Court and even after his conviction by the jurors, he claimed the sexual activity began with ‘kissing’ and that it was ‘reciprocal’ – an instance of ‘childhood sexual experimentation.’

However, the jury and the judge rejected his claims after the victim, now an adult woman, told the court Treglown’s actions against her when she was only a young child, made her feel as though she was ‘trapped in a waking nightmare’.

She told the judge during the sentence hearing: ‘His actions have forever altered the course of my life. He not only robbed me of my innocence, but of what my life could have been.

‘Over three agonising years, I was trapped in a waking nightmare.’

The court heard that years passed and whilst the victim’s mental and physical health deteriorated, Treglown went on to move to Cornwall where he founded a successful business, House Management Group, and to get married.

When the victim reached out to him years later to let him know of her intentions to reveal the abuse he put her through, Treglown purposefully made an attempt on his life to ‘gain sympathy’ – taking pills and whiskey at his home where he ‘knew he would be discovered in time’ to be saved, the court heard.

The judge told the defendant: ‘You knew the extent to which she was suffering and you were in a position to help by putting your hands up to what you had done – but you had built a successful business, you had a girlfriend and you did not want to risk losing what you had.

‘She had become a problem – so you seized the narrative, took an overdose and stole from her the opportunity to tell her story.

‘After this single incident of self harm from which you recovered well, you were treated with compassion and understanding – and she was even more powerless.’

Treglown, from Tregolls Road in Truro, Cornwall, was finally reported to the police and interviewed in 2021 – well over a decade after the victim managed to put an end to the abuse by threatening to come forward.

In his interview to police, he admitted touching her – but insisted that it was ‘mutual’ and later he admitted two counts of sexual assault on a child under 13, and two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He denied one count of rape and two of assault by penetration – but jurors convicted him of those offences after a trial at Reading Crown Court.

He was sentenced to five years behind bars – a much lesser sentence than he would have got as an adult, as the court had to reflect the fact that he was a child at the time of the offence.

Passing sentence, Judge Nott did not hold back from making more scathing remarks, calling Treglown ‘callous’ – and praising the victim for having sought ‘justice for herself.’

Judge Nott told the defendant before sending him to jail: ‘You claimed that you were only a child and did not know better, that it was mutual childhood sexual experimentation.

‘Of course, as the jury found, it was no such thing: it was rape.

‘Your offending was less about teenage sexual experimentation on your part and more about the excitement and the potency that you gained from being able to coerce and control a girl.

‘Your attitude was detached and callous. You lacked any empathy and took no real responsibility.

‘Having victimised and abused your victim as a child, as an adult you reversed the narrative. Your behaviour since then has been selfish and self-protective.

‘It is to be hoped that now, she has her voice back.’