On Friday, Timothy Schofield was given a 12-year prison term at Bristol Crown Court.
After a trial at Exeter Crown Court earlier last month, Schofield, 54, the brother of television personality Phillip Schofield, was found guilty of 11 sexual offences involving children, including two counts of engaging in sexual intercourse with a child.
He had “exploited [the victim’s] innocence at this stage of his life for your own sexual gratification,” Mrs. Justice Cutts told him during Friday’s sentencing.
‘It was wrong on every level for you to behave as you did.
‘He felt forced to do what you wanted, trapped and unable to escape. He felt he couldn’t tell anyone and did not do so for many years. You took away his ability to be the teenager he should have been – carefree, relaxed, happy. It is clear to me that you became utterly obsessed with him.’
Mrs Cutts went on to commend the boy on coming forward to report the abuse.
In a victim impact statement, the victim, who was a teenager at the time of the abuse, said he had become ‘numb to life.’
‘Before Tim was arrested, I felt I had no freedom. I often felt panic, stress and fear. I felt like I was trapped in a loop of fear and anxiety of the abuse happening again,’ he said in a letter read to court by Robin Shellard, prosecuting.
‘It was only after Tim was arrested that I felt safe. It was only after Tim was arrested that I felt free – free to be me, free to be happy, free to be relaxed.’
The boy added in the statement via PA: ‘I feel more blunt, I feel more bitter, I feel numb to life.
‘I know I should feel really happy or really sad but I don’t have the ability to emotionally react to what is happening.’
Late last month, Schofield was sacked from his job as a police IT worker.
He worked in IT for Avon and Somerset Police and had already been suspended from his job at police HQ in Portishead after he was arrested and charged.
Following his convictions, a misconduct hearing was chaired by assistant chief constable Will White and he was dismissed without notice.
Earlier in April, Schofield was charged with 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019 – including two of sexual activity with a child.
Schofield told the jury while giving evidence that he had watched pornography with the boy – whom he insisted was over the age of 16 at that time – and they had masturbated while sitting apart but denied performing sexual acts on the teenager.
Following the verdict, Phillip issued a statement condemning the actions of his brother in which he said: ‘As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.’
The jury at Exeter Crown Court found him guilty of all counts with a majority of 10-2 after more than five-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
He denied the charges but was convicted of three counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity, three of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, three of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two of sexual activity with a child.