Walter Finch
A SERIAL child sex offender has been found guilty of 19 offences against children in the Gibraltar Supreme Court over a period spanning a quarter of a century.
Graham Southwell, 63, of the Varyl Begg Estate, was remanded at HM Prison Windmill Hill, the Rock’s only jail, following the verdicts.
The nine men and women on the jury took just 90 minutes to find Southwell guilty on all counts but one at the end of a fraught five-week trial in which testimony was often interrupted by tears and break requests.
The offences against five victims took place between 1990 and 2016 and included the rape of a boy under 13 and sexual activity with a child.
When was arrested in August 2021, he categorically denied the allegations made by his first accuser, claiming that he had been working on refurbishing the boy’s home.
Southwell, a former Gibraltar Health Authority employee, is said to have struck up a relationship as a ‘mentor or friend’ with his victims.
He is said to have encountered children while working at a variety of jobs including as a security officer at a local housing estate and volunteer at St John’s Ambulance.
He has also worked as a supervisor in the Community Service Project overseeing prisoners and other offenders carry out their unpaid work orders.
The adult victims came forward during the trial to recount harrowing experiences that they had endured with Southwell as children.
The second week of the trial heard one victim accuse Southwell of abusing and raping him over a period of eight years, starting when he was just six years old.
The family and partner of the victim described him as a ‘gentle soul’ and ‘loving caring partner’.
However, they also spoke of someone who was ‘troubled, depressed and closed off,’ while his partner added that she’d always felt there was something she didn’t understand about him but that she ‘does now.’
After the verdict was announced, Southwell’s lawyer requested bail for his client until his sentencing on December 11.
However, Chief Justice Anthony Dudley made it clear that this would not be granted, and Southwell would stay in jail until he found out his sentence.
Gibraltar Commissioner of Police Richard Ullger thanked the victims for showing ‘tremendous courage in reporting these sickening crimes.’
“We hope these verdicts send a clear message that our officers will relentlessly pursue justice and prosecute those who sexually assault children, whenever that abuse took place,” he said.
