Sentence extended for child abuser over new offences

A man who sexually abused young children has been sentenced to a further five years in prison after admitting more child sex offences.

Andrew Evans, 40, from Crowborough, most recently pleaded guilty to two child sex offences on a girl under the age of 13 who he was childminding.

He is currently serving a sentence of over 14 years for sexually assaulting children while working at a nursery.

He committed the new offences in March 2022, prior to his original sentence, while he was on police bail with the condition not to be alone with children.

A hearing at Lewes Crown Court was told that a woman hired Evans to stay overnight and look after her two children after he advertised his childminding services on a website.

When he was arrested for breaking his bail conditions, officers found indecent images of one of the children, a seven-year-old girl, on his phone, and the girl later told police that she had been abused by Evans.

In a statement read to the court, the girl's father said: "The hardest part is knowing that my daughter has to live with what he did to her.

"I feel anger unlike anything I have ever known. It is an anger that comes from knowing that someone deliberately preyed on my little girl who should have been safe.

"Alongside that anger is heartbreak. I cannot stop thinking about what my daughter went through whilst under his care."

A Sussex Police spokesperson said that it made a safeguarding referral to the childcare website which Evans had signed himself up to. The website shut down his account and fully co-operated with the investigation.

Detective Constable Rebecca Wilde said: "Andrew Evans is a prolific child abuser who deliberately placed himself in childcare settings in order to groom and exploit young children.

"This type of offending causes lasting damage not only to the direct victims, but also to families and communities, and it will not be tolerated."

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