Army Cadets sergeant jailed for sexually abusing boy as he cleaned his camouflage


An Army Cadets Sergeant who sexually abused a boy as he helped clean off his camouflage has been jailed.
Nigel Walton, 57, denied groping the cadet in a shower before pleading guilty on the day his trial was due to start.
Judge Peter Blair QC jailed him for two years and three months.
He told Walton: “You had been denying to yourself and everybody else that you had ever committed this offence.
“It has taken a very long time to come to court and a significant period of time to be investigated by the police.
“It involved the touching of the naked genitalia of the victim when he was aged about 13.
“It was a significant abuse of trust because of the fact that you were his cadet Sergeant.”
Walton, of Caerphilly, Wales, pleaded guilty to indecent assault.
He was told to register as a sex offender for ten years and barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.
Ian Fenny, prosecuting, said Walton was attached to a cadet unit in Bristol, where he could be “over familiar and friendly”.
There were occasions when Walton would invade boys’ personal spaces and flick their private parts, Bristol Crown Court heard.
Walton would also take boys back to his home and show them pornography, Mr Fenny said.
The sergeant groped one of the lads as the boy showered to clean off camouflage.
Mr Fenny said: “For decades it caused him considerable distress and anxiety.”
After feeling years of embarrassment, shame and guilt, the complainant told his wife what happened, reported the matter and Walton was arrested in 2015.
The court heard that, after the abuse, he was handed a suspended jail term for downloading child abuse images.