Former nursery apprentice jailed for sexual abuse
Katy Morton
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
A former nursery apprentice has been jailed for 11- and-a half years after being found guilty of abusing nine toddlers in his care.
Jayden McCarthy, age 18, was described as a ‘dangerous sexual offender who poses a risk to the public’ by a judge at Exeter Crown Court, according to local reports.
The teenager was found guilty of one charge of rape and 13 of sexual assault while working at a privately-run nursery in Torquay, Devon in 2019 by a jury in May.
He was also found guilty of two counts of raping a boy in a separate incident in 2014.
Mr McCarthy will now serve 11 years and six months in prison with an extended licence of three years.
The teenager was taken on as an apprentice at the nursery in March 2019.
An investigation was launched when a child at the setting where he worked told her parents that he had sexually assaulted her.
Mr McCarthy was immediately suspended from the nursery, which later closed down.
The former nursery apprentice denied all allegations in police interviews and said he had never touched the children in his care sexually and ‘derived no sexual pleasure from abusing children’.
At Mr McCarthy’s trial at Exeter Crown Court, the jury were shown 13 CCTV clips from July 2019 of him touching eight children inappropriately.
Judge David Evans said Mr McCarthy, who was 16 at the time of the offences, posed a high level of risk given he could 'barely contain' his sexual impulses while working at the nursery.
Detective Chief Inspector James Stock, from the Public Protection Unit at Devon and Cornwall Police, said it had been an 'emotionally challenging and incredibly complex case'.
An independent review into McCarthy's abuse, commissioned by Torbay's Safeguarding Partnership, is now due to be completed.
