AN ARREST warrant was issued after a man found guilty of molesting a young girl in the 90s failed to turn up for sentence.

But that warrant was withdrawn later in the day when Antony Williams turned up at the crown court several hours after his sentencing hearing was due to begin.

The 37-year-old was found guilty by a jury at Swindon Crown Court last November of abusing the girl, whom he babysat, as he read her younger sister bedtime stories.

Jurors took more than eight hours to find the Penhill man guilty by a majority of 10 to two of two counts of indecent assault. He was cleared of three other indecent assault charges.

Williams was in his mid-teens when he carried out the abuse in the late 1990s.

The assaults all took place while he was babysitting the victim. He also looked after the girl’s younger sister, although there was no suggestion he had assaulted her.

It was said Williams had touched the older girl's private parts as she lay on her bed. His victim said he also got her to touch him sexually, including while he read bedtime stories to her younger sister.

Interviewed by police in 2018, the victim said: “I just thought it was normal. I didn’t think anything of it.” 

The girl told her mum what had happened, who in turn confronted Williams. He denied the claims and told the woman to take her daughter to a doctor to show she had not been assaulted.

As well as denying the indecent assaults, Williams claimed he was younger when he babysat his victim and her sister – aged 11 or 12 and not 15 or 16, as prosecutors said.

That meant the Crown had to prove to the jury that, if jurors believed Williams was under-14 when he carried out the abuse, he knew what he was doing was seriously wrong.

Virginia Cornwall, prosecuting, said: “The Crown say that this defendant was, during the course with which we are concerned, of an age where he knew very well what was right and what was wrong and that is why he is before you now.”

Williams, of Ramsbury Avenue, Penhill, was due before Swindon Crown Court on Monday morning to be sentenced by Judge Peter Crabtree.

He failed to show-up to the 9.30am hearing, with defence barrister Don Tait telling the court he did not know where the defendant was.

The court heard Williams had missed an earlier hearing at the magistrates’ court.

Judge Crabtree issued a warrant not backed for bail, but then withdrew it later in the afternoon after Williams arrived at court.

Williams was bailed to attend for sentence on Thursday, March 11.