A karate champion convicted of sexually assaulting teenagers has been jailed for two years. Andrew Sherry, a founder member of the Karate Union of Great Britain , was found guilty following a trial in March of indecently assaulting one boy, under the age of 16, in the mid-1980s, and of four counts of sexual assault on an older teenager in 2011 or 2012.
He said: “It is perhaps a tragedy for you, your karate club and those who will be impacted, but particularly for your victims, that you were unable to exercise the discipline and self control which I understand is central to karate when it came to your sexuality.” The court heard the complainant had since struggled with alcohol and gone on to commit criminal offences. The judge said: “You had an impact on him psychologically which has had lasting echoes on him throughout his life.”
Two other men, who Sherry was not charged with offences against, claimed he had propositioned them in the 1990s. The judge said: “This is an abuse of trust, undoubtedly.Tania Griffiths KC, defending, told the court it was not accepted that the life of the first victim had been “ruined by alcoholism caused by any abuse” and said an impact statement from the second complainant, who sat at the back of court, was “exaggerated”.