Indecently assaulting a teenage girl with a mental age of eight.

Ray Downing, 69, Jailed for Indecent Assault

The father of Stephen Downing, who was wrongly jailed for 27 years for murder, has been sentenced to eight months in prison for indecently assaulting a teenage girl with a mental age of eight.

Ray Downing, of Bakewell, Derbyshire, admitted to inappropriate physical contact with the 17-year-old girl, whom he befriended in September 2001. He told Derby Crown Court that he was "teaching her about sex."

Judge Peter Stretton, in his sentencing remarks, stated, "You imposed yourself on an inadequate family and you used your dominance to behave in the way that has been described to me. That anyone could have believed that your behaviour was sexual education is beyond belief."

Downing, who collapsed in the dock as he was sentenced, will also serve an extended licence period of three years and four months and will be subject to the terms of the Sexual Offenders Act for 10 years. Fifteen other charges of indecent assault against five other women will remain on file.

Downing's defense solicitor argued that the family had endured significant stress during the 27 years Stephen was incarcerated for the murder of a woman in a Bakewell cemetery. Stephen Downing's conviction was declared unsafe in 2001.

Stephen Downing, now 47, expressed his disappointment with the sentence, stating, "I am saddened that the judge has decided to send my father to prison. He is not a paedophile or sexual predator and this sad business has come about because of his stupidity and the huge pressures he has been under in the last 30 years." He vowed to support his father.