Schoolboy jailed for rape

7:54am Saturday 11th October 2008

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A schoolboy who raped a woman in an Oxford park was yesterday jailed for six years.

The boy — who was 14 when he attacked the 19-year-old in February — is thought to be the youngest rapist ever convicted in the city.

But Judge Anthony King refused to let the public know who he is.

Oxford Crown Court was told the boy held a curved 10cm knife to his victim's face and threatened to kill her, before raping her.

The boy, who attended a school in Oxford, grabbed the woman by her sleeve as she was walking along Between Towns Road, Cowley, and dragged her to a nearby children's play area.

He asked his victim for money, told her he was a virgin and then raped her in the play area behind the John Allen Centre, while his friends hid in bushes nearby.

After the attack, he marched the woman — who was visiting the city — to a cash machine but she managed to raise the alarm by attracting the attention of a doorman at the nearby William Morris pub.

The boy, who stared at the floor as he stood in the dock, admitted two charges of rape.

Judge King had previously heard claims the boy, now 15, had fallen in with a gang, who ordered him to carry out the attack.

David Hislop, defending, said at least two members of the gang were in the play area during the attack, at about 8pm on February 9.

Jailing the teenager for six years, the judge said: "You approached a young woman, you forced her into an area which was dark and isolated, you produced a knife and threatened her with death.

"It was a terrifying, degrading and violent episode.

"Only a significant sentence can be appropriate, even in the case of someone as young as you were at the time."

Judge King also ordered the boy to sign the Sex Offenders' Register and serve an extended four-year licence period after his release.

The judge refused an application by The Oxford Times to lift legal restrictions on identifying the teenager, who cannot be named because of his age.

We had argued the public had a right to know who had committed such a serious crime, even when the attacker was so young.

Admitting that the public had a right to know about the incident, Judge King said: "I am not concerned so much with the personal welfare of the defendant, but that at some date he must be integrated back into the community.

"That is going to make that task substantially more difficult if his name is published and the public will, for that reason, be the greater losers."

Speaking outside the court, Det Insp Simon Morton, of Oxford CID, said: "The victim in this case suffered an extremely traumatic attack.

"Her ordeal has affected her in ways that many rape victims experience. She has lost her confidence, finds social interaction difficult and she doesn't feel safe on the street or even in her own home.

"For a 14-year-old to commit a rape of this kind is almost unheard of.

"To do what the offender did at such a young age is very worrying."