Isle of Wight councillor Daryll Pitcher has been handed an 27-month prison sentence and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years in relation to 2 historic child rapes which took place over 30 years ago.
Pitcher, of Norman Way in Wootton, was found guilty on 2 counts of rape by a jury at the Isle of Wight Crown Court back in February. Today (Wednesday) he appeared at the same court for sentencing.
A 6-day trial held earlier this year exposed the detail of Pitcher’s offending, with the historic offences dating back to between 1990 and 1992 – over 30 years ago – when Pitcher was a child himself.
A victim impact statement described how Pitcher penetrated the young girl twice, taking her virginity. The court heard the victim did not understand what had gone on and it was only after having sex education classes at school did she realise it was wrong. Until very recently, the victim said she blamed herself for the incidents but it was only through therapy and counselling that she realised that was not the case.
She now says she wants him to realise the consequence of his actions. The victim says Pitcher has had the opportunity to be accountable for his actions but still won’t ‘tell the truth’.
The disgraced Wootton councillor, who has had the audacity to turn up to public meetings since his conviction, was today handed a 27-month sentence for 1 count, to run concurrently with a 6-month sentence for the other count, of which he will serve half in custody and the other half on licence. The sentence was passed down by Recorder Richard Onslow.
Pitcher has also been handed an indefinite restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim.
DC Anthony Daniels said:
“The victim in this case, now a grown woman, has lived with the memory of this awful abuse for decades.”
“Her courage in speaking out after such a long period of suffering is commendable.”
“We take all allegations of sexual abuse extremely seriously, and want victims to be confident in the knowledge that they will be heard and listened to, and their reports will be believed.”
The Wootton councillor has always denied committing the offences and has previously announced plans to appeal his conviction.
It’s thought that action will now be taken to remove Councillor Pitcher from office.
Who is Daryll Pitcher?
Daryll moved to the Isle of Wight aged 9, later going on to attend Carisbrooke High School. He then worked for some years in a shop, before becoming a retail manager with a local animal charity.
In 2014, Daryll’s interest in British independence led him to become constituency manager. He later worked for an MEP and even went on to stand for UKIP in the 2017 General Election. He also stood for election in 2019 – unsuccessful on both occassions.
Pitcher has served 2 stints on the Isle of Wight Council representing the parish of Wootton.
Looks like gravel extraction will now go wild in Wootton!
He was what 14 when this happened?
The woman couldn’t remember exactly when it allegedly happened and as such they couldn’t really say how old he was and as Daryll said he did not do any of this, so, it is a more like a guess, based on her story.
at the end of the day, they have believed her story over his, despite no evidence being presented or any actual facts
My worry is that people believe anybody who says they were raped was indeed raped. Nowadays I’d imagine DNA is alot better at being read and tested so I wont have a clue pre 90’s but I feel as though I cant even go out and pull a lovely date out of fear that she has the power to end my life, like I love a woman but in this day in age it seems that if you upset a woman she will come for your livelihood root and destroy style, at least with men we square up have a scruff and get on with life. So the fact the jury convicted him when murderers get off with less confusion in original statements and such, all because rape is involved. Did they act based on biased fear? 1/2
I couldn’t help myself, had to reply to yours because this is the future of the world… I know in a case like this it was probably quite bland as it occurred 30 years prior so facts would be hard to come by, also what evidence can there be especially in this case and I do have empathy but I think theres a line when it comes to a lie, yeah I can say I didn’t have the last drop of milk when I did but then theres lying about being raped. I just hope that we wont be living in a world where women or men lie about this sort of thing but then again that’s nieve of me. Truth, I want truth, sweet smelling truth that comes as a breathe of fresh air and some peoples “truths” stink 1/2
There are already countless examples of women who have been found out to be lying after they cried rape and their phones checked, which showed texts either to the contrary or confirmed the lies
sadly sanguinius, you will be naive if you think that someone wouldn’t lie about being raped, they do, have done and others will do in the future.
this woman could quite easily have been playing along quite happily with this, 30 years ago and all of a sudden has counselling and the counsellor convinces her that she was a victim of a crime, in other words, twisted things around and next she is crying rape.
a man, whose adult life is flawless, no convictions, not even a caution, as far as I know, has been destroyed by this woman
Why did it take her 30yrs to accuse him?. What benefit has it been in doing this ?. If he did rape her yer that’s wrong but they were kid’s, kid’s do lots of stuff growing up that are illegal and adults see as bad. In many countries age of legal responsibility is 18yrs, here we have stupid rule of 10yrs.
The Law is an ass, there must be millions of men wondering if this could happen to them right now….
Oh well let him out then. Along with 14 year old murderers , 14 year old thieves . Do what you like you’re 14. Rape is Rape whatever your age . . Murderers of Jamie bulger was 10. Murderers of Stephen Lawrence were 16 but sent to prison at 36 when they got caught . So yes he was 14 & 15 , and ?
Men do atrocious things to women and like wise women to men but what I cant get along with is this whole he raped me lock him up and every fool is hanging on to their word like the leity of a catholic priest. Rape is rape any age I wasnt suggesting otherwise but they WERE kids and I bet you that you were either at it or thinking about it at that age so is it rape? Did she just have sex and felt wrong afterwards if so it wasnt the boys fault per say nor hers but to not say anything?i cant speak for that generation but I’m sure even in the 80s more and more people were coming forward of rapes that occurred then. it just sounds like she’s just as confused and yet hes been convicted? 2/2
Yep not right, but wonder how many had been 14yr olds who are now adults are very worried?
Or 15. And he has been sentenced according to his age at the time. Had he been 18 or older his sentence would have been longer (4-9 years perhaps). Also, he will only serve half his sentence. Rules have changed since and sexual offenders serve two-thirds of sentence, but this applies to recent offences.
As for the IE saying “it is thought action will be taken to remove Councillor Pitcher from office”… no action is necessary. The law is clear, a vacancy occurs automatically with prison sentences this long.
So?
If a current 14 year old was convicted of rape, you’d be saying “go easy on him, he’s only 14”, would you? I imagine you and the other “usual suspects” would be calling for his blood.
Lets be clear, here, this wasn’t “statutory rape” because they had consensual sex under the age of consent. This was rape, full stop. His victim did not consent.
That’s why it is wrong that 13 year olds can go to a chemist and be given free contraceptives. Will these kids be hailed before a court in 30 years time to face similar charges? Sex under the age of 16 is still illegal so why encourage kids to break the law by giving free contraceptives? Don’t get me wrong, rape is a bike offence, but don’t encourage these kids by giving them the impression that it’s ok to break this law.
So they both have consensual sex when they are both under the age of consent and he gets convicted of historic rape? … … …
It is not technically consenual because neither is old enough to give their consent. But I accept your point that if it was a couple of teenagers exploring their sexuality – and we (nearly) all did, there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with blaming one party. The whole issue of historic offences is minefield, patricularly in evidential terms. In this instance, it would seem that a value judgement has been made now about something that happened at a time when values were different. But, not having seen the evidence, I have to conclude that the case has been proved beyond reasonable doubt which is a very high evidential test.
If it was consensual sex it would be a charge of statutory rape. Alarming the amount of blokes who see the words charged with rape read it as consensual sex . There is no statutory rape charge just rape which means, that’s right , he raped a child who was a lot younger not a teenager he forced her to have sex .
This should teach other abusers “your time WILL come” no matter how long it takes, you will pay for your actions
Totally agree who cares if he was a Councillor he is and never will be above the law
I still can’t understand how they found him guilty it’s his word against hers no evidence at all just hope this isn’t down to a grudge she has against him
That’s it…. Where is the evidence?? How was he “PROVEN” guilty if there’s no evidence? Just her word against his.. strange….
How thick are you do u really think they would take it to court with No evidence as you say!? Was u in that court room hearing all the ins an outs ? No so shut ur mouth n show the victim some respect.
Victim should be ashamed, woke up one day to finally say something what a load of rubbish ,money , and time
Stuart you’re defending a rapist and blaming a lady that was raped as a little girl . You should be ashamed . All these predators exposing themselves on here anonymously . Hope you all have limited contact with women and underage girls.
How high can she jump I wonder all if she bounces
What evidence are you looking for? A video perhaps? A witness?
Many many cases are decided on the opinions of jury members. It is nothing unusual. Should have gone for the Prince Andrew Pizza Express defence.
We’re you party to all the evidence or are you just guessing?
I’m guessing he’s not fully ‘lodged up’ ?
The absolute arrogance of this scumbag to just carry on in office whilst all this was going on is extraordinary. Doesn’t matter how long since the crime was committed.
Must have been a strong case for the CPS to have charged Pitcher. Historic sex crime cases are incredibly hard to bring to court let alone convict on. So if he was roughly a 13/14/15 year old teen at the time from reading the news articles the victim stated she didn’t know what happened to her until she learnt about sex education in school. Sex Education is taught in primary school from year 4 to year 6. That puts the victim at 8/9/10 years old at the time. The jury had enough evidence presented to them to find him guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Custodial sentence probably for the age of the victim. There are plenty of nonces walking around on suspended sentences.
I don’t know how you can convict someone without any evidence? Not just in this case, but in any trial.
Testimony is evidence. He might have fared better if he’d shaved that dodgy beard off.
You can’t.
Testimony is evidence.
Pitchers was full of holes and inconsistencies and his victim’s wasn’t.
I’m wondering why so many here are supporting a rapist against his victim. Skeletons in their own closets?
How do you know that? What have you read? Please share.
Wow!
Is this publication misogyny central, or what?
Were any of the people claiming there was no evidence sat in the Court during the trial? No they weren’t. 12 members of the public, of good standing, were, and 11 of them decided Pitcher was guilty.
Daryl Pitcher is a convicted rapist. End of story.
I hope his time inside allows him to reflect on his crimes and come out a better and more honest person.
The prosecutor admitted in court it was a matter of his word against hers. I’d say he had a poodle for a lawyer while the other was an attack dog. If you’ve ever been in a court case your quickly realise it has little to do with the truth and is more about how the other side can make you look.
His “word”, that was full of inconsistencies and her “word”, that wasn’t.
Maybe you could toddle off to the court records and get the evidence. Odd that Island Echo didn’t attend this high profile case and report the evidence in full detail to allow you lot to give your own verdicts. Juries are made up of 12 random members of the public and we all know that many are not of good standing, so don’t spin that line. Bet he appeals and gets out.
Why should they? It isn’t them that is questioning a verdict that was lawfully and correctly arrived at according to British Justice.
None of that Euro Justice rubbish that Pitcher was so against. This was good, solid, British justice. Pitcher should be proud that he was convicted by a British Jury in a British Court and sentenced by a British Judge to serve time in a British prison.
That’s “Taking Back Control”.
Can you see my big ol’ grin?
You mean Euro justice where you are guilty until proven innocent!
Do not presume people who is seemingly defending the “rapists” is actually one themselves; what an unintelligent and cruel thing to say. I like many others aren’t scared to have a debate and get to the root instead of thinking people might think I must be a rapist too if I say anything with the slightest inclination of defending a convicted rapist. Im hardly defending a man like Jimmy am I? Wouldnt even say I’ve said anything in the form of defence to Daryl at all have I? No one here has. I am venting my thoughts, I always hope to have people make sense but what you said is utterly wrong. Shame on you
Hope they treat him like a bitch. Good riddance.
Just like how we treated your mother
I feel sorry for the men who get accused by girls who accuse men falsely to cause trouble it wreaks their lives even after a NFA result ( no further action) if you genuinely are raped I hope you get the justice you deserve but don’t do it out of spite and don’t do it years after the event especially in this case why didn’t you report it when it happened?
whilst not in any way condoning any form of sexual crime it is very scary that someone can report a “crime” which may have happened decades ago and not have to provide any concrete evidence to support their allegations resulting possibly an innocent persons life being destroyed, it has happened many times where a woman with a grudge has falsely alleged a crime or has a mental problem and accused some random man.
Hope he enjoys his time inside.
Given his crime and his political persuasion I imagine he will be rather popular.
Can you see my big ol’ grin?
so, despite all your preaching about inclusivity and fairness and kindness smiffy, you are showing your true colours as you are advocating that a man, should be made to suffer violence, mental degradation, fear, and sexual exploitation in a confined space with no means of escape, because some woman claimed, without proof, that he did something to her, when he was a child himself, over 30 years ago.
Except Pitcher isn’t a man.
A jury of his peers convicted him based upon evidence given, I’m sure you’d completely agree with the ruling if it went the other way.
I do wonder what many of the people defending him would do if one of their loved ones had a similar situation, would you believe them? I imagine not and thats fine, just remember that time you defended a convicted rapist.
Have never seen so much public support for a rapist in my life, its vile.
a man has had his life ruined by a woman who has waited 30 years to claim that he did something to her, when they were both children. The lawyers said it was her word against his, she never said she was forced into it either, she just said that she suddenly found herself on the floor (as reported on this site).
the whole story she came up with stinks – she will have to live with herself and of course, there is always the possibility that Daryl will get angrier and angrier as each day passes in jail for the suffering he is enduring, for something he says he didn’t do and no one believed him. Revenge may be a feature of his plans upon his release, we won’t know, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
I’m not interested in what he said, most convicts in prison are innocent don’t you know.
The only thing that is of any importance is the courts found him guilty of rape, put him on the sex offenders register, and sent him to prison.
Makes you feel proud to be a Caulkhead. I have a tear in my eye.
Mmhmmm – imagine being that fragile you feel the need to defend a convicted rapist and ignore the entire justice/court process.
I don’t condone any form of violence, sexual or other types against anyone or anything. We don’t know what actually was said in full in the courtroom but if he does appeal hopefully the relevant news agencies will report all the facts in full otherwise there will still be worrying and lingering doubts about the safety of his conviction.
Can people honestly remember in detail what happened 30 or 40 years ago for I don’t and I think if anybody say they can they are bloody liars
1/2
I think anyone (e.g. Jury members) who have to make, potentially, life-changing decisions based on people’s memories of events, should have to (at least) have some understanding on the fallibility of human memory.
We all assume that our recollection of events is correct, but many studies of human memory and psychology, prove the exact opposite.
People, even soon after events, let alone after many years, can be 100% sure (lie-detector proof) that something happened that didn’t, and conversely convinced that something didn’t happen that did.
Whilst it still comes down to a personal judgement of the evidence, the jurors should understand that either, or both could 100% genuinely believe their version of events is true.
2/2
Whether anyone could decide this (on the ‘evidence’ as reported) without a ‘reasonable doubt’ is, IMHO, questionable.
If you’re interested, a good introduction to the issues is the book “The Invisible Gorilla”
Yes that is right. I have a good friend who is always convincing himself that things happened to him when they actually happened to someone else. I had to drag him out of bed with my wife a few weeks ago because he accidentally convinced himself that he was me. Well that is what he told me. I was very cross with him for a while.
I can’t remember what happened last week. Hope I didn’t murder someone. Again …
To be fair, I would happily bang up all the IoW councillors for being useless. This a start.
So if he is able to appeal and this is overturned what are people going to say then?. Recently in the news a number of worrying case’s where people have spent many years in prison to then have convictions squashed and been released. Also many have been charged detained in prisons for months for cases to fail or not guilty. We should not assume Court’s get it right. I couldn’t tell you who I was sleeping with 30yrs ago ,went through a girlfriend every week or so. This is also not first time so called therapist pass blame to others.
To protect her anonymity the press can’t give certain details of witness or who it was if you all knew what it was , if only you all knew what you’re defending . This was not teens exploring this was not friends experimenting this was so seriously wrong what happened none of you have a clue . If you did you’d all be disgusted with him and yourselves for defending it. It got to court for a reason because there WAS evidence no one can repeat .
Well it must have been repeated in court as evidence. I think you are BSing us. Some people on here are writing like they know all the details. It would have been easy to attend the court or inspect the court records if you had the time. This is a matter of public record. Can everyone stop writing speculative BS?
lies Henry, all lies unless you are going to put the evidence here on the message board, then don’t bother claiming to be in the know.
That’s right nobody commenting on this page knows the full details off this case they are just going off the details in this article. Only the jury the judge and the lawyers and police etc who were involved know the full details about this case. It can’t just be he said she said 30 odd years ago I’m sure there is far more to it.
Details cannot be repeated publicly the press are told what they cannot print in court or face charges themselves as can anyone who writes the details that will identify the victim , if the full details of who this was were printed it will identify his victim outright . It was not a fellow teen it was not a friend or girlfriend she was not consenting and there was proof not just her word feel free to look into it further instead of sticking up for a bloke who knew in no uncertain terms what he was doing was wrong even as a 14 year old . I am not going off details of any article I’m going off facts which were presented in court. Please do look into the records you’ll feel sick I promise . I bet the papers would love to put the full story
Yes that’s what I was saying that I bet there is a lot more to this case than we all know. And as you’ve pointed out there quite clearly is. .
bs Henry unless you are willing to put facts up to back up your claims then no one believes you
Unfortunately Heny, its pointless, rape sympathisers won’t accept that he was found guilty by a jury. I imagine if the verdict went the other way then they would all be about the accepting court ruling and evidence.
All the people STILL defending his actions despite being found guilty says a lot about the people on this site. The dislikes on this comment will also demonstrate that.
No the dislikes say alot about your comment. People on here are rightly concerned about the safety of his conviction. Given the opaque nature it was arrived at and the admission by the prosecutor which was widely reported in a number of news outlets that this is basically one word against another its hardly surprising. No one is condoning this kind of behaviour. So you can stop trying to gas light other posters.
Rest my case – would rather side with a rapist than a court ruling. But continue to defend him, shows your true colours. 😀
I’m in his fan club , smelly sam
Good for you, makes me wonder why you’re still so proud to be associated with him, c**ty Chris 🙂
what a shame the victim utter disgusting takes how many years?and think how many people you slept with since are they going to get done ???
You will have no teeth left if you carry on
If you raped them yes you could get done if not then no you’ll be fine. Anything you need to confess?
Yea I done loads date rape better
Actually to all those saying daryll has a lot of support there’s a small minority making multiple accounts to defend him and his rapey ways .
Most of them are from his following called the Vectis Party