[2025] EWCA Crim 1371

The applicant was a long standing family friend of the parents of C1 and C2, who are sisters. The offences were committed between 2016 and 2022. The sisters would often stay overnight at the applicant's house without their parents. Other times he would collect them from school and take them back to his house. He bought them presents and spent large sums of money on them.

The abuse of C1 began when she was 7 or 8 years old and continued until she was 12. The applicant began to distance himself from C1 after she told him "No" when he tried to touch her between the legs when sitting in a car (count 10). The applicant then began to sexually abuse C2, her younger sister.

Matters came to light on 21 June 2023, when C2 confided in some school friends and then told a trusted teacher what the applicant had done to her. C1 (then aged 13) was interviewed by police in June 2023. C2 (then aged 11) was interviewed the following month.

Count 1 was the oral rape of C1. Count 2 was a multiple incident count of at least three further oral rapes of her. Count 3 was, as we have noted, an attempted rape. Count 4 concerned a single incident when the applicant licked C1's vagina. Count 5 was a multiple incident count encompassing at least three further occasions when the applicant licked C1's vagina. Count 6 was a single incident of assault by penetration where the applicant digitally penetrated C1's anus. Count 7 was a multiple incident count representing at least three further such offences. Count 8 was a single incident of sexual assault where the applicant touched C1's vagina. Count 9 was a single incident of sexual assault where the applicant used a vibrator on C1's vagina. Count 10, to which we have already referred, was the last offence committed against C1.

In terms of the offending against C2, count 11 was a single incident count of the applicant licking C2's vagina. Count 12 was a single incident of sexual assault where the applicant rubbed his penis against C2's vagina. Count 13 was a multiple incident count representing at least two further occasions of the same behaviour.

Police searched the applicant's home on 27 June 2023. Officers found a memory stick on top of a wardrobe. It held both still and moving indecent images of children: 260 category A images, 131 category B images, and 683 category C images. There were also five sexually explicit fake images. The children depicted were aged between 4 and 12.

The applicant had one previous conviction from 2010 for persistently soliciting a woman for prostitution from a motor vehicle.

Victim Personal Statements from C1 and from the mother of C1 and C2 were before the Crown Court. The Judge said that they showed that the applicant's behaviour had had a devastating effect on the family and the individuals within it.