A serial sex offender and former cricket coach from Cornwall made multiple victims’ lives hell over 30 years of vile offending against teens and women. Sick David Taylor has now received his second jail sentence after more victims of his abuse came forward.
Taylor, 62, formerly of Upland Crescent in Truro but currently imprisoned at HM Prison Channings Wood in Devon, appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentencing today (Friday, January 3). He had been found guilty following a trial of 10 counts including gross indecency and indecent assaults relating to crimes committed in the 1980s.
His sick abuse now spans decades – including previous convictions – and was committed against multiple victims between 1985 and 2015, the court heard. Taylor is currently serving time following a trial in 2023 for other – later – offences. The publicity around these led more of his victims to come forward leading to further charges. Those victims came forward as the result of a 2021 trial over other charges. The second trial then also led to more coming forward.
During one of the incidents referenced during today’s sentencing, Taylor assaulted one of his victims while at a funeral when he put his hands on her breasts in the presence of others. Two of his victims were assaulted as teenagers by Taylor at a restaurant run by his family in Truro at the time.
Both of his victims were under the age of 15 while Taylor was in his early 20s. In a victim personal impact statement, one said the effect was long-lasting and that she thought he was in a position of trust. Taylor assaulted her, forced her to touch him and performed a sex act on him. A second victim, abused from the age of 13, was groped by Taylor who forced his hand inside her jeans.
In his sentencing remarks, His Honour Judge Robert Linford said his victims had to find a way to move on with their lives as Taylor “got on with [his]”. “These complaints came forward, the complainants having seen reports in the press of your convictions for other sexual offences committed subsequently to the complaints submitted by these complainants,” he said.
“The convictions recorded against you for sexual offences were committed after the matters in respect of which I must sentence you but they are of some relevance as you chose to contest these matters.” He said: “It demonstrates that you’ve learnt nothing from previous encounters with the criminal justice system.”
He said these matters could have been resolved earlier had Taylor admitted them. Judge Linford said he is also confined to the maximum sentence possible that existed at the time the offences were committed.
Taylor was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. He will remain on the Sex Offender’s Register for life.
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Background
In 2021 Taylor was convicted after a trial but not jailed for touching a woman and a teenager without consent. Media coverage of the trial resulted in more victims coming forward and a second trial taking place.
Taylor then appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence in August 2023 having been found guilty of six sexual assaults on three women. Taylor’s latest offending involved touching up or kissing three women, as well as exposing his penis to one of them. Taylor even brazenly offended with others present. Taylor was jailed for 21 months.
Following a third trial in November 2024, Taylor has now been sentenced over a further 10 charges to seven years.
The facts of the 2023 case
Opening the second trial – two years after Taylor was convicted of similar crimes (see below) but walked free – prosecutor Rowan Jenkins told the jury that Taylor had been a coach for both local and county women’s cricket teams. He said: “This case involves allegations from three different women players. While having much good to say about his skills and character, they had to endure unwanted sexual touching by him.”
Mr Jenkins said that the first victim “genuinely thought highly of David Taylor and said he was a good coach but there was always a bit about him that was a bit unnerving”. Mr Jenkins described how, after a game against Camborne, the woman had been got out and was angry at herself. She was said to have been stood in the pavilion when Taylor came up behind her and kissed her neck.
Some time later she described Taylor walking over to her and grabbing her crotch in a pavilion with a number of people – including Taylor’s family – present. He made a grotesque sexual comment to her in the process.
Moving on to the second victim, Mr Jenkins said that towards the end of a season the woman was packing up and getting ready to leave after a session when Taylor invited her into his car “to talk about next season”.
Mr Jenkins said: “Suddenly, out of the blue he took hold of her face and started to kiss her. She was 20 and he was 24 years older. She was surprised and accepts in her surprise she may have kissed back for a bit. He put his hand up her top briefly and she recalls freezing. She started telling him why it was not right but instead of stopping he went to kiss her again and this time put his hands between her legs.”
Later on that season, Taylor again crossed boundaries by approaching the player in the car park and starting to kiss her. This woman was also victim of a third offence, in which Taylor walked over to her on the pitch and put his hand on her private parts over her shorts leaving her shocked.
The second victim spoke of otherwise getting on well with Taylor, him being a good coach and supporting her personally. These incidents are said to have resulted in players getting together and agreeing that none of them would be left alone with Taylor.
Mr Jenkins said that the final victim recalls that during a group photo, Taylor put his hand between her legs and pinched her bottom.
Truro cricket coach David Taylor has had five trials in as many years
(Image: Unknown)
The first trial
During the first trial in 2021 he court was told how Taylor told his first victim that he ‘shouldn’t really fancy her’ and, on another occasion, in 2006, sat next to her, put his arm around her, slid his hand in her underwear and touched her bottom cheeks for about 30 seconds. The victim said she felt sick.
Two years later, Taylor praised the way his victim looked. A year later, when she was still underage, he approached her as she was waiting in a car with a window down and kissed her on the lips.
Prosecuting, Simon Burns said the victim felt like she couldn’t get away. She did not feel able to report Taylor’s offending until 2018. Mr Burns said Taylor’s victim said she ‘can’t ever escape what he did’.
“I can’t ever escape that and it doesn’t feel like surviving to me,” he added, reading her victim statement. He stole a normal childhood from me, one where I wasn’t sexualised”.
The third offence related to a second victim, an adult, who Taylor targeted at a social event. Taylor approached her for what she thought would be a hug before Taylor slid his hand down her underwear. She hid in a toilet, where she cried.
The complainant told her husband, who challenged Taylor, who in turn denied any offending took place. “I refuse to be his victim,” she said in her victim statement, adding that Taylor brought “so much anxiety” to herself and her loved ones.
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