‘Child rapists jailed for just 40 months - because a judge said their 11-year-old victim was ‘willing’ ‘
Last updated at 2:53 PM on 21st February 2012
Judge David Farrell agreed that the thought the girl looked like she was 14
Two men have been jailed for just 40 months after raping an 11-year-old schoolgirl who a judge agreed was a ‘willing participant’ despite being five years below the age of consent.
Roshane Channer and Ruben Monteiro admitted to the shocking offence which happened in a block of flats in Luton Bedfordshire.
They claimed that they thought the girl was at least 14 years old and Judge David Farrell QC agreed with them.
However, despite describing their crime as ‘abhorrent’ and saying they had shown ‘a casual attitude to sex and relationships’ he jailed them for less than three and a half years.
He said this was because he accepted their claim that she was a willing participant and looked like she was 14. The legal age for consent is 16.
Yvonne Traynor, a spokesman for Rape Crisis, described the sentences as being ‘among the worst’ she had ever heard of.
She said: ‘The abhorrence of this case spreads the ignorance of a judge that can believe that an 11-year-old cuold have been a “willing participant”.’
Guidelines in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 suggest sentencing of rape of a child under the age of 13 should be between 10 and 13 years in prison, but the pair were instead jailed for three years and four months.
The Crown Prosecution Service is now considering an appeal against the ‘unduly lenient’ sentences.
The rape took place in a block of flats in Luton in July last year
Channer and Monteiro, both 21, had sex with the girl in July last year in a block of flats in Luton Bedfordshire.
She was there with a group of teenagers and Channer had sex with her on a landing at the flats while Monteiro had oral sex with her.
Judge Farrell said: ‘Despite her age it is accepted that she was a willing participant, but the law is there to protect young girls from this type of behaviour and to protect them from themselves.
‘The girl had clearly been subjected to systematic sexual exploitation and you willingly used her for your own sexual gratification.
‘It is aggravated by the fact that the event was being videoed.’
He added that there was evidence that the footage had been circulated as it was found on one of the defendant’s phones.
Both Channer and Monteiro pleaded guilty to a single charge of rape and will have to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
Judge Farrell said there were exceptional features to the case which led him to reduce the sentence to 40-months for each of the two 21-year-olds.
Miss Traynor added: ‘Does [Judge Farrell] not understand teh age of consent and the psychological impact this despicable act will have on this child?
‘Any man that thinks it is acceptable to have group rape with an 11-year-old - or even a 14-year-old - and film it deserves a much longer sentence so that he can sit and think about his crime and subsequently have some in-depth mental health treatment so that he will not be a danger to any other 11-year-old when he is released.’
The two men had maintained they believed the girl was at least 14, and, after viewing evidence, the judge agreed she appeared that age.
He said the prosecution accepted that the girl had not objected to what was happening, and the men had pleaded guilty at the earliest stage and did not have previous convictions for sexual offences.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104287/Child-rapists-jailed-just-40-months—judge-said-11-year-old-victim-willing.html#ixzz1n1pkdzRk
