Stanmore man guilty of sexual assault

A Stanmore man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl in 1991. John Hayford, 84, was found last week at Harrow Crown Court of sexual assault of a child under 13, after a trial lasting nine days. He is to be sentenced on Friday, January 16. Police in Harrow began investigating Hayford in 2012, after he handed himself in, following a BBC Crimewatch appeal for a man who had sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl in a Stanmore supermarket. During the course of that investigation, police identified another victim who had previously come forward in 2000, alleging that Hayford had sexually abused her at an address in Stanmore in 1991. Hayford was charged with sexual assault of a child under 13. For more, see My Stanmore News out December 19