A Kitchen Porter at Trinity College has been jailed after being convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault by Cambridge Crown Court. 

Sean Fagan, 27, has been found guilty of two counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault on girls under the age of thirteen.  

The case has only recently come to light following one of the victim’s disclosures of her experience to a friend and a member of staff at her school, yet some of the offences, it has emerged, date back over ten years. 

A denial of the indictment back in March turned into an eventual guilty plea in court, and Fagan now faces a prison sentence of two-and-a-half-years for his offences. 

One offence occurred when Fagan was a mere 14 years of age, evidence for which was provided in court by the prosecutor, Nicola Talbot. Fagan admitted to assaulting a young girl at a house in Cambridge. He is said to have approached her as she came out of the shower, and to have sexually assaulted her on several occasions. The victim was 9 years old.  

Other similar incidents were exposed during the trial, Fagan also admitting to the sexual assault of another nine-year-old girl. The incidents were said to have occurred between 2006 and 2007, at which time the offender would have been 22 years old.  

It was to this revelation that Judge Anthony Bate responded: “As similar offences happened when you were 22 years of age, you can no longer blame immature adolescent curiosity for your actions.” 

As a result, “only an immediate prison sentence [could] be deemed appropriate” in the eyes of the judge, who highlighted with resolve both the severity and the indefensible nature of the crimes.  

Following this verdict, Fagan will automatically lose his job at the college, and will be prohibited from ever working with children again. 

The reaction to the case has been strong, with students at Trinity College responding to the news with concern, disbelief, and disapprobation in certain cases with regards to the length of the sentence, deemed too short for the severity of the crime.   

Yet despite the charge and consequent conviction, Fagan’s family have stood by him. According to the mitigating Michael Lavers, “His disgraceful, shameful conduct has devastated his family; however he has retained the support of his mother and father”. 

At least for Fagan’s victims, who were described by the prosecution as deeply “traumatised” by their experiences, some solace can be sought from the knowledge that their attacker is now behind bars.