A Carlisle teenager has been sent into youth detention for raping two schoolgirls during incidents which took place almost two years apart.
The city’s crown court heard how the first victim was aged just 14 and was “paralysed by fear” and “froze” as initial consensual kissing between the pair, in a secluded area of a Carlisle park, escalated into unwanted sexual activity as she told the boy “no”.
In the aftermath of that rape, in the autumn of 2017, the female spoke of her mental health hitting “rock bottom”. In an impact statement, she said of the now 17-year-old teen, who can’t be named because of his age: “He is dangerous.”
“You knew what you were doing was wrong and you did it anyway,” she wrote, addressing him directly. “You chose to take my control and you broke me. I literally felt the cracks appear in my life and have had no idea how to put myself back together.”
In June 2019, the boy then forced himself on another girl, aged 15, in a sexual assault which bore similarities to the first incident. Again there was some consensual intimate activity, in the bedroom of a house, before the boy became “forceful and rough” and persisted with criminal acts against her wishes.
“I kept saying ‘no’,” the girl later told police, who managed to alert a friend with a string of text emojis previously chosen by them to signal being in trouble. She made text disclosures to the charity “Shout” later that day.
In her impact statement, the female said: “To try and put on paper the way (he) has ruined my life since he raped me would be impossible to show the severity of how he has stripped me from my feeling of self-worth and self-confidence.” She added: “He violated me in the worst way and for that I hate him.”
Both females addressed the defendant directly in their statements, each telling him “I am strong” and both vowing to rebuild their lives.
The boy denied separate rape charges relating to each girl, and one attempted rape charge arising from the second incident. But he was found guilty on all three counts after a youth court trial before losing a crown court conviction appeal.
He was sentenced today, when Anthony Parkinson, defending, noted the boy had just turned 14 at the time of the first incident and was aged 15 when the second occurred.
Not seeking to underestimate the impact of the offences, said Mr Parkinson, there was “strong mitigation” for the boy, adding that “rehabilitation, in this case, is a very real prospect”.
But Judge Nicholas Barker imposed three years’ detention, telling the teen: “These were bad things that you did.”
“In my judgement, the only form of sentence that can be imposed in relation to the seriousness of these offences is a sentence of detention.”
Work will be done with the boy while in detention to deal with issues of risk, and he must also sign the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.
