Man jailed for sexually molesting girl, 10

The owner of a Todmorden takeaway has been jailed for a year after a jury found him guilty of sexually molesting a young girl.

Wah Ip, who runs the Lucky Dragon premises on Burnley Road, had denied two charges of sexual assault relating to an incident in April last year, but after more than two hours of deliberation the jury at Bradford Crown Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts on both allegations.

The court heard that Ip had kissed the 10-year-old complainant on the mouth and grabbed her between her legs over her clothing.

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Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said the incident had left the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, “distraught and shocked”.

Ip, a married man with three sons, was in a distressed state as he was led out of the dock to begin his jail term, but the judge said there had been some “grooming” behind his offending.

Judge Durham Hall said during the trial the girl had spoken in a convincing and articulate way about her ordeal.

The judge said 59-year-old Ip, who lives in Manchester, had effectively called the girl a liar and claimed that the whole incident was totally invented from start to finish.

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“Whenever the prosecuting counsel dared to suggest you may be guilty you told her off for making the allegations.

“You have no insight, no remorse,” the judge told Ip.

The judge said Ip was a risk to youngsters without careful oversight and he told the defendant that he would now have to register as a sex offender with the police of the next 10 years. Judge Durham Hall also imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order which bans Ip from having unsupervised contact with girls under 16.