Police officer's son sexually assaulted victims in his school uniform

Son of a police officer, 13, handed rehabilitation order after sexually assaulting four victims in his school uniform jeering ‘everyone has sex’

• The boy was given a 30-month youth rehabilitation order this afternoon
• The court heard that he attempted to rape two of the victims 

A 13-year-old schoolboy sexually assaulted four victims on four afternoons while walking home from school – attempting to rape two of them.

A court today heard the youth, the son of a police officer, was wearing his school uniform when he approached his first two victims on a tree-lined and secluded footpath as they walked home from a college.

The court heard a third victim was also attacked on the same footpath while a fourth was assaulted on a separate footpath in Telford, Shropshire.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given a 30-month youth rehabilitation order this afternoon, after a judge ruled it would allow him to continue receiving ‘therapeutic’ treatment to address his behaviour.

Prosecutor Alex Warren said the boy attempted to rape two of the victims – telling one that ‘everyone has sex’. Three of his victims were teenagers. 

Pictured: Shrewsbury Crown Court (file photo). Prosecutor Alex Warren said the boy attempted to rape two of the victims – telling one that ‘everyone has sex’. Three of his victims were teenagers

Mr Warren said the first victim, aged 17, was molested in December when the boy ‘touched her breasts’ after encountering her listening to music on headphones as she walked alone.

‘It was beginning to get dark and he was walking in the opposite direction’, the barrister said. ‘He stretched out and grabbed her breasts.’ 

The woman started to run away but the boy ‘smiled crudely and walked off’, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.

But Mr Warren said the defendant then followed her, approached her and asked for a hug. He then began grappling with her, before leaving when a man appeared on a bicycle.

The following three attacks took place on successive January days, in the same area of Telford, the court heard.

In the first of these, the youth grabbed the breasts and bottom of a 16-year-old who was walking home from college alone, before pushing her to the floor and straddling her.

The court heard the boy told the victim he wanted to have sex with her and that ‘everyone has sex’. He then tried to remove her hand which was protecting her belt buckle, before eventually running off.

The next day he grabbed a woman’s bottom from behind in an assault captured on CCTV, the youth’s arms outstretched as he approached her.

Mr Warren said the victim described her assailant as ‘very confident’ and described how he ‘just walked away’ when she took out her phone to try and take his picture.

The boy later claimed to police that he had tripped on a shoelace and had stretched out his arms to break his fall.

The boy was arrested following the fourth attack, on a 17-year-old girl as she walked home from college. 

The court heard he passed her on a footpath before approaching from behind and grabbing her, before kissing her cheek.

Mr Warren said the victim became scared as he was ‘becoming rougher and more aggressive’, eventually putting her in a headlock as he attempted to pull her leggings down.

The victim eventually kicked him off and ran, but he chased her, holding her bag and earphones.

The court heard the victim sought help from a passer-by, at which point the boy dropped her belongings and ran away. He denied attacking her and told police he was a Good Samaritan who had been attempting to return her belongings.

In victim impact statements read out to the court, the victims said they had been left scared to walk on their own.

One victim said she was now ‘constantly checking behind me when I walk’. Another said she had ‘not walked to or from college since this happened’, and now wore ‘joggers or big jumpers’, rather than the ‘cute’ outfits she favoured previously.

The boy was convicted of seven sexual assaults and two attempted rapes at Kidderminster Youth Court last month.

Jemma Gordon, defending, had urged the judge to impose a ‘robust’ youth rehabilitation order and pointed out the boy was ‘particularly young’ and had suffered an ‘unstable upbringing with adverse childhood experiences to date’.

The court heard the boy claimed his offending was driven by anger and low mood, rather than for sexual gratification.

Judge Anthony Lowe said the ‘very, very difficult case’ required him to strike a balance between ‘what a 13-year-old boy needs and what society needs when women are accosted in the street for no good reason’. 

He said the rehabilitation order would carry a supervision requirement, and would allow the boy to receive treatment in a care setting in the hope of addressing his behaviour ‘by the time he is approaching adulthood’.

The judge told the boy, who stood in the dock to be sentenced: ‘You are old enough to understand that behaviour has consequences and what you did was very bad.’ 

He told the boy he would have received a sentence of ‘eight or nine years’ if he was an adult for such offending, adding: ‘You have to look inside your own head and try to work out what on earth made you behave in that way.’

The court heard the boy had no previous offences to his name.

Detective Sergeant Chris Henry, of West Mercia Police, said: ‘Thankfully attacks such as these are rare but women everywhere can take reassurance from the fact that we will not hesitate to act when they do.’

The judge said he had ‘absolutely no idea what the driving force is behind these offences’.

He said was clear the boy had a ‘distorted view about sexual intimacy and sexual relationships and a distorted view about women generally’, but added: ‘There is no explanation for why he has these distorted views or, more importantly, how they are going to be rehabilitated.’

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