Darrin Keith Garnham had denied all the charges of indecent assault but was found guilty after a three-day trial.
‘Your actions have ruined the life of another person,’ Judge Catherine Fooks said in passing sentence.
She said that while Garnham had moved on with his life, what he had done had not only impacted his victim but also her family, she said.
Crown Advocate Fiona Russell, prosecuting, said that all of the offences took place between 1981 and 1983 at the same property where the girl, of primary school age, and Garnham were both living. Garnham was in his late teens and on leave from army service. Three of the assaults of sexual touching and other acts were said to have taken place in the bathroom of the property, and the other in the living room.
Nothing was said until February 2024 when the woman, living in the UK, decided to make a complaint of historical sexual assault to her local police station.
Contact was made with Guernsey Police who started an investigation, and Garnham was subsequently arrested. He denied all the allegations.
In a victim impact statement the woman said she had left the island at the age of 19 to avoid ever seeing Garnham again.
Several years later she had discovered his phone number and contacted him to confront him about the incidents. He denied them taking place and ended the call.
The woman said that she had told few people about what had happened over the years. The assaults had impacted on her relationships with her own children, and she had been over-protective of them.
Since the trial she had suffered flashbacks and nightmares and was scared to be alone, she said.
Advocate Chris Green, defending, said the man in the dock was not the same one who committed these offences some 40 years ago.
Aged about 20, Garnham would have been immature and these offences had not been the start of a pattern of offending.
He had no previous convictions and after leaving the army had got married, lived and worked locally with decades of lawful and pro-social behaviour.
Advocate Green suggested that the incidents had been an aberration, though Garnham, now not in the best of health, having suffered a stroke, accepted that he was likely to be sent to prison.
Letters of reference, including from the army, showed that he was a law-abiding person.
A report from the Probation Service stated that Garnham had a low risk of reoffending and the author did not believe that immediate imprisonment was necessary to protect the public.
Judge Fooks said that the court noted Garnham’s age and the impact the proceedings had had on his health in considering its sentence.
He was sentenced to 21 months for the most serious of the four assaults, with 18 months, concurrent, on each for each of the other three offences.
He was also made subject to a five-year sexual offenders notification order.
