Abuser will serve more than five years for offences against two young girls

Tuesday 14 June 2016

A Jersey fisherman and volunteer lifeboatman has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison for sexually assaulting two under-age girls between 15 and 20 years ago.

Nicolas Marvin (51) was found guilty of four counts of sexual abuse at the Royal Court yesterday – three of which involved a girl aged between three and seven years old when the assaults took place.

Marvin, who maintains his innocence and has appealed against the convictions, was sentenced after having been found guilty in April of four counts of indecent assault.

Crown Advocate Simon Thomas told the court the cases were in relation to historical abuse which occurred between February 1996 and February 2002.

Advocate Thomas recommended the court should pass a seven-year prison sentence on Marvin to underline the seriousness of the charges, including the fact that one of the complainants was a toddler when the abuse began. Advocate Thomas also argued that Marvin had conducted the abuse over a period of years and by continuing to deny the offences had shown no remorse. 

Marvin was interviewed in relation to the same complainants in Jersey in 2002, but a decision was taken by police not to press charges.

But in 2013 the police became involved again after both girls, by now adults, complained to the authorities.

Defending Advocate Mike Preston said Marvin was a person of previously good character, who had worked as a volunteer lifeboatman for a decade.

Advocate Preston said: “I have received plenty of evidence that Mr Marvin is a loving, caring, hard-working man and one of integrity. He was a member of a lifeboat crew for a period of ten years and was someone who was willing to risk his own life to help save others.

"He has suffered severe depression throughout this period and has had suicidal thoughts. He has had this hanging over him for a number of years now and these dreadful allegations have put him under immense pressure. He has not worked since these charges were made. He has shown no remorse because he is convinced of his own innocence and therefore cannot. Suffice to say, he is appealing against the convictions.”

In co-operating fully with the police, Mr Preston indicated that a prison sentence of between four and a half and four and three-quarters years was appropriate.

Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith announced a court sentence of five years and four months for the four counts of assault, having deliberated for half an hour.