A former assistant church organist and youth club worker has been jailed for sexually abusing a child on the Isle of Wight.
Police received a report on 23rd May 2022 from a man reporting that David Tickner had abused him when he was a child in the 1990s.
Tickner, now aged 61, was an assistant organist at a local church in Newport at the time, and also helped run the church youth club.
Following a police investigation, Tickner went to trial at Salisbury Crown Court on 22nd July this year to face 1 count of indecent assault on the boy, which took place at an address in Newport on an occasion between 1994 and 1996 when the boy was aged between 14 and 16.
The trial proceeded for 4 days before the jury found Tickner guilty, and he was remanded into custody.
Appearing at Salisbury Crown Court on Friday 22nd November, Tickner, of Cook Avenue in Newport, was jailed for 6 years.
DC Julia Parker, who led the investigation, said:
“Tickner exploited the contact he had with this boy through his work in the church in order to sexually abuse him.
Article continues below this advertisement “The impact this had on this child, now a grown man, cannot be understated. This type of abuse leaves irreparable lifelong trauma, and I commend the courage shown by the victim in this case for speaking out and reliving his childhood suffering to support this police investigation.
“We will never tolerate any form of child abuse, and I want anyone else affected to feel reassured that we will listen to you, support you and thoroughly investigate any allegation you make to police.”
