Thaindian News

London, Oct 5 (ANI): A British car dealership boss nicknamed ‘octopus arms’ has been jailed for two years for molesting female workers.

Charles Archer, 48, was branded a “serial groper” by a judge after he was convicted of sexually assaulting four young trainees.

The father-of-two even posed for a Christmas party photograph with one arm around his wife and the other hand on an employee’s breast.

A court heard he groped a 17-year-old’s breasts only three days after she started working for him at the Ford dealership Archer’s of Ashby, in Leicestershire.

Archer was found guilty of 11 sexual assaults against three teenage girls and one woman in her 20s between 1989 and 2009.

“He abused his power to exploit the fact these young women were keen to keep their employment,” the Daily Mail quoted Judge Simon Hammond as saying.

“He displayed a lack of respect and showed arrogance. He’s a serial groper. During the trial, he tried to criticise and blacken the character of some of the girls.

“They gave evidence with great courage and dignity,” Judge Hammond stated.

The court had also been told how Archer tried to bully one victim into dropping the charges by telling the woman’s boyfriend that he would “destroy” her if she testified.

Mary Prior, prosecuting, also revealed that he tried to buy off another victim by letting her use a 20,000 pounds car, and that he was “comfortable” molesting his employees that he did so even in public.

Archer, of Church Gresley, Derbyshire, claimed his behaviour was horseplay and his victims tried to frame him.

At Leicester Crown Court, Archer was acquitted of four other charges of indecent assault. (ANI)