A former RAF serviceman preyed on a three-year-old girl when he returned from Cyprus on leave.

Stuart Taylor, now 53, had denied molesting the tot during stays at the girl’s home in West Oxfordshire in the early 2000s.

But on Friday (October 6), jurors at Oxford Crown Court found Taylor, of Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancs, guilty of three counts of indecently assaulting the child. 

They were unable to reach verdicts on a fourth count.

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Remanding Taylor in custody to return to court on November 3, Judge Michael Gledhill KC warned that a prison sentence was inevitable.

He ordered a pre-sentence report from the probation service, but told the defendant’s lawyer: “By adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report I don’t want Mr Taylor to think by any means that he’ll receive anything other than an immediate custodial sentence.”

Judge Gledhill added: “These are very serious matters and I’m not prepared to allow him bail for the next three or four weeks.”

Earlier this week, jurors heard that the girl told her mother at the time that Taylor had ‘fiddled’ with her.

But, defending, Julian Lynch asked the jury to consider inconsistencies between the daughter’s evidence and that given by others.

He pointed to difficulties in young children’s earliest recollections, citing the victim’s account that Taylor had spent more time with them than a couple of weeks every six months.

That was at odds with the evidence of her mother, Mr Lynch said.