The Stage

Court finds ‘sleazy’ Harborough Youth Theatre director guilty of child abuse

Published Tuesday 22 February 2005 at 13:05

Director of Harborough Youth Theatre James Adkins is facing a prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of groping teenage dancers and for using his computer to distribute child pornography.

The 30 year old, of Farndale View, Market Harborough, was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault following a six-day trial at Leicester Crown Court.

As soon as the verdict was reached the court was told he had pleaded guilty last month to possessing and distributing child pornography and will be sentenced for all offences in Birmingham next month. He was told to expect a custodial sentence.

The court heard how he had abused his power as director and producer, picking mild-mannered victims who desperately wanted to be onstage. Addressing the jury for the final time, prosecuting barrister Nicola Moore said: “Is it because the girl was desperate to be a dancer, does that not ring a note of truth? We allow things to happen because we are desperate. Is that not the mark of someone who picks their victims?”

The court heard how Adkins had put his hand up the girl’s skirt when she was dressed in a schoolgirl costume. “I didn’t know what to do, it felt dirty,” she told the court. On a separate occasion she said Adkins got into bed with her, uninvited and put his hand on her bare bottom - she was 17 at the time.

The girl’s evidence was further backed up by a separate allegation of a similar assault which happened more than ten years earlier. Adkins had put his hand up a 14 year old’s skirt at a Gang show he helped organise. The girl, now in 25, had not made a complaint at the time but came forward when police investigating the other allegation approached her.

She told the court as an adult she now felt strongly Adkins should not be working with children. When asked why she had not said anything until now she said: “I felt like I was the only person in Harborough who thought he was sleazy.”

Adkins denied the allegations throughout, claiming all the witnesses were lying. Summing the case up before a verdict was reached, judge Ian Collis said to the jury: “Cases like these always generate emotions. You have seen how upset the witnesses have been, there have been tears. I know you will have sympathy, put that aside and consider this dispassionately.”

The jury of six men and six women took just over two hours to unanimously decide their verdict.