Ex-boss of Bridgerton estate sexually abused girl

The former custodian of a stately home featured in Netflix's Bridgerton has been granted an absolute discharge for sexually abusing a girl in the 1980s.

Simon Howard, whose family run Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, suffered a brain injury following a fall in 2020.

A jury at York Crown Court found he had committed indecent assault and incited a child to commit an indecent act after a trial of facts in October.

Judge Sean Morris said the sentence was the only option available to him.

During the trial of facts, the jury heard at the time of the offence in 1984, Howard was living in the gatehouse of Castle Howard, between York and Malton.

The girl, who was six or seven at the time, had informed her mother who then confronted Howard, however he denied anything inappropriate had taken place.

The complainant contacted North Yorkshire Police in 2018, who interviewed and charged Howard.

Reading the woman's victim impact statement, prosecutor Michael Smith said she wanted to give a voice to the "voiceless six-year-old girl that was me".

"She grieves and feels wretched sadness for her six-year-old self, who should have been safe but wasn't," the statement said.

Mr Smith added: "The abuse was swept under the carpet, something not spoken about. It felt to her it was her shame being covered up, not his."

Delivering his sentence, Judge Morris said: "The defendant, of course, could not give evidence about the allegations and the jury found that he did the acts alleged against him, and that was the indecent assault against a little girl, aged six or seven, at Castle Howard back in 1984."

The Recorder of York criticised the delay in prosecuting Howard, who he said might have been able to stand trial had he been charged earlier.

"It was between his interview with the police and the day of the fact-finding that the defendant had a fall, from which he suffered brain damage," he said.

Howard ran the Castle Howard estate until 2015 when he stepped down from the family company which runs the property.

His family issued a statement after the hearing, in which they said following the fall at his home in Malton in 2020 he had suffered a brain haemorrhage.

It resulted in him being placed into a medically-induced coma and spending time at a neurological rehabilitation centre, they said.

His wife, Rebecca Howard, said: "If this case had come to court before my husband's horrific accident last year or even while his first wife was still alive, I have no doubts at all that the outcome of these allegations would have found in his favour."

Prosecutors told the court that a further charge of attempted rape, involving a different complainant, would remain on file.

Mr Smith said the Crown had concluded it would not be in the public interest to proceed.

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