A boy rapist who allegedly blackmailed his 12-year-old girlfriend for nude photos has lost his appeal. The schoolchildren – who cannot be named for legal reasons – started dating after joining top London grammar schools in September 2019, however the relationship turned ‘toxic’ when the boy – then aged 13 – allegedly issued revenge porn threats if she did not send nude photos.
Fearing he would still release the photos, the victim then stayed silent about being raped and sexually assaulted by him in a park, only opening up to her therapist and mum two years later. The defendant – now aged 17 – was convicted of oral rape, rape, and two counts of assault by penetration, in October last year, but this week attempted to overturn the conviction at a crown court.
After the victim gave evidence that she had been raped, some time between December 2019 and June 2020, her best friend recalled being told about the sex attacks. “She told me that he coerced her into doing it in the park and that she did not want to,” said the victim’s best friend, speaking from behind a protective screen on Tuesday, March 5.
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The witness also remembered being told about alleged revenge porn threats, when the boy ‘coerced [his girlfriend] into sending nude photos’ with a time sensitive ultimatum. “She used to say he had specific demands of what he wanted to see, and that he would not let her sleep until she had sent the pictures and videos he had requested,” the witness told the court.
The witness also recalled her best-friend spending ‘quite a while’ in the bathroom, when, she alleged, she was under duress to produce the nude photographs. “I found out later he had asked for pics then and would not take no for an answer,” she added.
The witness also claimed to have seen a rape threat text, but she had not told anyone about it because she assumed her friend had only confided in her because she was not ready to tell anyone else. “I saw one where he was just threatening to rape her,” she said. “She told me I was the only one she told, so I inferred she was uncomfortable.”
‘She was scared he would do things’
In her evidence, the victim’s mum said she had seen the boy three times – once to say hello at a bus stop, the second time in a crowd of teenagers, and the third when she took her daughter home from a park. It later emerged this is when she was raped.
The mum only found out about the abuse after her straight-A daughter started missing lessons, disengaging at school, and crying until 3am on school nights. After taking her to see a therapist in 2022, the victim opened up on a car journey home and revealed her ex-boyfriend had raped her and allegedly blackmailed her with threats to release her nude photos online.
The victim’s mum remembered being angry with herself, the boy, and her own daughter, but later learned she had felt unable to speak out due to the alleged threats. “She said she could just not do it. She was embarrassed. She was scared he would do things like release the photos to the public,” the victim’s mum said.
She also recalled a ‘bizarre’ incident, that, in hindsight, appeared to be a time when the victim was allegedly forced to send photos under duress. Her mum recalled boarding a holiday flight when the victim suddenly darted into a toilet, causing her to think they might miss the plane. The victim emerged 20 minutes later looking like she had been crying, her mum claimed.
Detective Constable Daisy Adams said the boy was arrested at school in early 2022 and gave a prepared statement under questioning, followed by no comment to all questions. In his statement, he admitted having a relationship with the victim and exchanging sexual photos, but denied physical intimacy and circulating or distributing nude images.
DC Adams also confirmed police found no evidence of threatening messages on the phones they downloaded, though it later emerged the boy had lost and replaced his phones since the time of the alleged threats.
‘I have nothing but respect for other females’
In his evidence, the boy denied groping the victim at a school disco but admitted getting her number and starting an online relationship. He then admitted exchanging sexual photos and videos, but claimed it was a mutual agreement and denied ever issuing threats or ‘pressing’ to get more. He also accused the victim of saving videos and photos of him, and claimed he could not have made the alleged revenge porn threats as she could have done the same.
The boy also recalled a time at the park when he took the victim aside from a group of friends, which included his then girlfriend, and ‘hugged and kissed’ her. Asked why he had not mentioned this incident in his police interview – when he answered no comment to all questions – he said he was acting on advice from his solicitor at the time.
In the course of the hearing, the judge admitted new hearsay evidence which said the park would have been closed at the time of the rape. Defence counsel for the boy quizzed the victim’s mum on this, implying she had lied in her evidence, but she said the pedestrian entrances were often left open to allow people out in case they got stuck.
The defence barrister also suggested March 2020 lockdown rules would have prevented the teenagers from meeting in the park, but was able to offer no expert evidence of this. When it came to the boy’s turn to give evidence, he denied ever having met the victim at the park, having met her mum, and having raped the victim.
“I have been raised by females my entire life. My dad was out of the picture. I have nothing but respect for other females,” the boy told the court. Asked by the prosecution if it was respectful to kiss other females with your girlfriend standing nearby, the boy said: “I thought I was a big man taking two girls at a time.”
The boy’s dad was also brought by the defence to give evidence that he would almost constantly oversee the boy before and after school, and did not let him leave the house without permission. But, under questioning from the prosecution, he said he was unware of the boy sending sexual videos, and admitted dropping him off at the homes of friends where he was unsupervised.
‘Wholly convincing account’
In his closing statement, the prosecutor asked why the victim would make the attacks up and dismissed the idea she had invented allegations because of jealousy over the boy’s other girlfriend.
He also questioned why the victim had said ‘he could not get it in fully’, if she was making up she had been raped. He concluded the photos and videos proved their relationship was sexual, and that the witness evidence of her times in the toilet, where she was allegedly forced to produce nude photos, showed the boy was ‘manipulative’.
The defence questioned why the victim had entered into a relationship with the boy, when she had already found his online behaviour ‘uncomfortable’. The defence also argued his client had shown credibility by offering information about the exchange of sexual photos, without any phone evidence to support it, rather than denying them outright.
However, the judge and the two magistrates were not convinced by the dad’s evidence that his son was never without supervision for a whole six months. The judge also said the barrister’s hearsay evidence ‘fell very far short’ of proving the park must have been closed at the time of the rape.
In contrast, they said the victim, her best friend, and her mother gave ‘a wholly convincing account’ as they convicted the boy on two counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault.
“We are satisfied the complainant’s evidence is true. We reject the appellant’s evidence,” the bench concluded. The boy, who has a previous conviction for burglary offences, will be sentenced on March 21.
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