Pensioner jailed for abusing four young girls 20 years ago

A PENSIONER has been jailed for sexually abusing four young girls more than 20 years ago.

- JASON EVANS

(Robert Jeffrey Hughes)

Robert Hughes, who for many years was a senior operations manager at an oil refinery in Pembrokeshire, sexually touched the girls both over and under their clothes on multiple occasions. All his victims were under 13, with the youngest being just five.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court said 74-year-old Hughes had an “outward cloak of respectability” which disguised the fact that he was a paedophile.

The court heard that the offending came to light in 2022 after one of the victims reported the abuse. A police investigation uncovered another three victims. The defendant denied all the allegations and said they had been made up.

In a series of statements which were read to the court by prosecution barrister James Hartson, three of the victims - all now women in their 20s and 30s - described the impact of the abuse they suffered.