Scuba coach sentenced over sex assaults on teens

A judge has praised two girls for speaking out after a scuba diving coach was sentenced for sexually assaulting them.

As well as groping the girls, aged 13 and 16, Harold Covell, 85, also sent emails to other young women saying he wanted to have sex with them, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Covell, from Sharow, near Ripon, was unfit to stand trial due to head injuries suffered in a fall in 2022, but following a trial of the facts, jurors found he had committed two counts of sexual assault.

He was given an absolute discharge as experts agreed that was the only suitable sentence due to his ill health, but Judge Robert Spragg said he hoped the girls would get some closure from his conviction.

The court had heard that Covell, who taught diving at the Spa Baths in Ripon, put his hand on the thigh of a 13-year-old girl and told her he could put it "higher" if she were a few years older.

He also made other inappropriate comments to her, the judge said.

In a statement read to the court, the girl said she felt her "whole life tilt on an axis" during those "few moments", and she "knew everything was going to irreparably change".

She said her childhood had been "stripped" from her and she grieved for her loss of innocence.

"Time stopped in that moment and is yet to start again," the girl said.

The court also heard that Covell had put his hands on the thighs of a 16-year-old girl sitting in front of him and asked for a hug, which caused the girl to freeze and then push him away.

Spragg said that despite Covell being unable to attend and understand proceedings, there was "an obvious and clear public interest for the sake of the [girls]" that a trial of the facts was held at which the defendant was "vigorously represented" by a barrister.

At the trial, two other young women had given "important evidence" consisting of "inappropriate" emails which Covell had sent to them that were "clearly of a sexual nature", he said.

Covell had told one of the women that he wanted to "seduce" her, while he told the other that he wanted to "make love" to her and asked her for a kiss, the court heard.

Covell was found by a jury to have "done the acts complained of", but the judge said on Monday that because of his medical condition the court had "no alternative" but to impose an absolute discharge.

Spragg said he accepted the sentence might seem "inadequate" for the victims, but he praised them and the other two women who provided the emails for "having the courage to come forward".

He said he hoped the fact Covell, who the court was told was of previous good character, had been found to have committed sexual assault would provide a "level of closure" for them and allow them to "move on from what happened".

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