A Royal British Legion worker convicted of sexually assaulting a widow has been jailed for two years and three months.
Michael Furniss, 62, of Shuttleworth Court, North Hykeham, was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Furniss was last month found guilty by a jury at Lincoln Crown Court of sexual assault on the woman who was in her late 60s at the time.
Furniss, a former RAF serviceman who was a volunteer caseworker for the Legion, was told by Judge Steven Coupland: “You targeted her as a vulnerable person. This was and is an appalling offence.
“You have not taken responsibility for what you did. The only appropriate sentence to reflect the gravity of what you did is an immediate custodial sentence.
“I would be failing in my public duty if I did not deal with you in that way.”
Furniss, 62, visited the woman after she asked the Legion for help with her husband’s funeral costs.
During the trial the jury was told that following the home visit from Furniss the victim complained that he asked her about her sex life and if she was missing sex.
He repeatedly asked her for a cuddle and before leaving he kissed her, putting his tongue inside her mouth despite her begging him to stop.
The following day he phoned her and made more inappropriate comments.
The victim contacted the police to make a complaint and as a result, Furniss was suspended from his volunteer position.
Jonathon Dee, prosecuting, told the court today: “The victim was particularly vulnerable at the time this happened.
“It was the entire reason for him being there. He was supposed to be there to help her. It was a real breach of trust.”
Furniss had denied sexual assault on the woman.
At the end of his trial, he was cleared of five further sexual assault charges involving three other women.
Furniss denied all the charges and accused the women of lying to the jury.
Karen Walton, for Furniss, urged he should be spared an immediate jail sentence and told the court he is a carer for his wife who needs 24-hour support.
She said he was assessed as a low risk of re-offending and was himself vulnerable and in need of help.
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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