Southport businessman allegedly molested four girls and exposed himself to other children

23rd June 2017
Darby, owner of Total Gas Safety in Ainsdale

Southport businessman allegedly molested four girls and exposed himself to other children.

A Southport businessman with “a sexual interest in children” allegedly molested four girls and exposed himself to other children.

The offences faced by 57-year-old Robert Darby span 25 years and a jury was told “they demonstrate a pattern of behaviour by the defendant.”

Darby, owner of Total Gas Safety in Ainsdale, is alleged to have abused the youngsters in the 1990s and 2000s and exposed himself to there children, who went to look at a puppy in the window of his Segars Lane office, in 2015. Darby, a father-of-three, of Dam Wood Lane, Scarisbrick, denies 14 sexual offences which also includes downloading indecent images of children.

Gerald Baxter, prosecuting, told a jury at Liverpool Crown Court today (Mon) that the first complaint against Darby was made by a woman in October 2015. She said she visited his home as a child when she was aged between seven to ten and saw his penis while he sat on the stairs in a dressing gown with no underwear on.

The woman said on another occasion he told her to come upstairs and collect a “fart machine” toy. She said she found him lying on his bed wearing only headphones, with his eyes closed and masturbating and went back downstairs without the machine.

She claims that on another occasion while at his house he put her in his bed with his sleeping wife Debbie, and pressed against her buttocks. When arrested by police, Darby said nothing had ever happened, but his wife may have invited the girl into their bed if she was distressed.

A second alleged victim told officers Darby had lifted her nightie up – so she was just in her underwear – and made her lie across his lap. She said he tickled and massaged her back, which “felt weird and uncomfortable”, but he was a persuasive adult and she was just a child.

A third woman told police he made her take a bath in front of him, despite her protests and the intervention of his wife.