A former publican who raped a woman and sexually or physically abused three girls and two boys across three decades has this week been jailed for 11 years.
David Furneaux, 69, committed the offences while running pubs in Somerset, Gloucestershire and Devon and continued even after he retired to Spain on health grounds, Gloucester Crown Court heard on Monday (June 1st).
Prosecutor Ray Tully said the offences had taken place in Burnham-On-Sea, Dursley, Bristol, Sidmouth and Spain.
Jailing Furneaux, whose last British address was in Exeter Road, Exmouth, Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him: “Over the course of 30 years your vile and bad temper and your rampant sexuality have cast dark shadows over the families you have affected.”
The judge said there had to be a long prison sentence to reflect Furneaux’s abuse of his victims, despite him suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and needing oxygen.
Furneaux pleaded guilty to raping a woman twice between July 1975 and December 1984. He also admitted five offences of indecent assault on a girl between January 1974 and November 1978, two offences of sexually assaulting another girl in July last year, cruelty to that girl and two boys aged under 16 between July 1975 and May 1985 and indecent assault of another girl between August 1987 and June 1989.
Several of Furneaux’s victims were among about 20 people sat in the public gallery to see him sentenced.
When Furneaux was arrested he denied all the allegations. He continued to do so throughout the proceedings but then pleaded guilty at the last hearing in April to 13 of the 20 charges against him.
