‘You’re going to need MORE than a walking stick!’: Repulsed passers-by shout at pensioner, 72, after they catch him sexually assaulting 12-year-old girl
- John Potts pulled a young girl from her bicycle in a park near Sutton-on-Hull
- New footage shows brave passers-by confront pensioner after sexual assault
- Potts was detained under in a secure hospital under the Mental Health Act
This is the moment brave passers-by confronted a pensioner after he dragged a 12-year-old girl into bushes and sexually assaulted her.
John Potts, now 72, pulled the young girl from her bicycle and pinned her to the ground as she cycled through a park between Bransholme and Sutton near Hull.
He then pulled both his and the girl’s trousers down to their knees and repeatedly sexually assaulted her, Hull Crown Court heard.
The pensioner, who has dementia and a brain injury, was stopped by passers-by who heard a ‘scuffle’ in the bushes as they drove past.
One woman was so concerned she turned her car around and rushed to help the stricken child.
As she did so, a group of men gathered and filmed Potts while making sure he could not leave the scene until police arrived.
John Potts pulled a young girl from her bicycle and pinned her to the ground in a park between Bransholme and Sutton near Hull
The video then circulated on Facebook, with the cameraman, who then thought the girl was 14, exclaiming he would report the pensioner to police.
In the clip, pixellated in an appeal after the attack last year, Potts is seen staggering around the park with a walking stick near to a bike.
He appears to be fastening his belt as he approaches the cameraman as the pair shout at each other after the attack in 2017.
The filmer said: ‘I just caught you with your pants down with a 14-year-old girl!
‘There’s a 14-year-old girl running away!
‘You’re going to need more than a walking stick when the police catch up with you.’
The camera then pans to show more men approaching the pensioner through a small gate.
The girl had been on her way to a friend’s or relative’s house when she was grabbed by Potts.
She told police: ‘He forced me to go with him. He was dragging my bike.
‘I tried to stop him but he went on with it.’
The members of the jury were told that a mix of forensic evidence was found in her underwear, and it was ‘a billion times more likely to be from him and her rather than her and an unrelated [to the case] person’.
In distressing evidence, the girl later told police he was ‘itching his bum and put his hand over my mouth and it had p*** on it.
‘It was on his fingers and it smelt of dog s***’.
After hearing a ‘scuffle’ in the bushes, a group of men gathered and filmed Potts while making sure he could not leave the scene until police arrived
Potts was not fit to stand trial and was detained under the Mental Health Act.
The jury found he committed three of four alleged acts – two sexual assaults of a child under 13 and inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.
Potts was flanked by three nurses when he appeared for sentencing at Hull Crown Court on Friday.
Judge Paul Watson QC said: ‘As you were under a disability when you committed the acts, you have been deemed not fit to plead and I’ve now had to consider what to do with the limited options that I have before me.
‘After hearing the live evidence of doctors and reading the information they have provided me with, I believe that you suffer from a mental disorder of such a degree that you need to be detained in a secure hospital under section 37 of the Mental Health Act.
‘In regard to the nature and potential of further offending if you were to be set at large as your condition is likely irreversible, I’m also putting a section 41 restriction in place in order to protect the public.
‘You will now be taken back to hospital and detained unless or until the Home Office see it fit that you be released.’