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Rapist spared jail as judge agrees girl, 10, looked older
By Ben Quinn
Last Updated: 8:15am BST 05/04/2007
A man who raped a 10-year-old girl was spared a jail sentence yesterday after a High Court judge agreed that the victim looked older.
Describing the case as "wholly exceptional", Mr Justice Roderick Evans said he understood why Liam Edgecombe, a 20-year-old painter, had thought that the child was 16 when they had sex last year.
Edgecombe, who was charged with rape, had entered a guilty plea on a basis accepted by the prosecution - that he believed she was 16, that she was presented as a person of that age and that he was entirely shocked to find out she was only 10.
He was granted a conditional discharge for 18 months but, apart from having to register with the police as a sex offender, no further punishment was imposed on him.
Swansea Crown Court heard how the girl was in the care of a local authority when she was taken on a shopping trip to a branch of Tesco on November 24 last year. Chris Clee, prosecuting, said she pretended to go to the lavatory and took her chance to "disappear".
That night she met Edgecombe outside a pub in the centre of Haverfordwest, west Wales, and he invited her back to his nearby flat in Hill Street, where they had intercourse twice.
Mr Clee said Edgecombe raised the subject of the girl's age but she asked him: "Does it matter?"
He said there was no doubt the girl consented to sex but because of her age the offence amounted to rape.
The following day police spotted her in the centre of the town and she was returned to care workers. She told them what had happened but refused to co-operate with the police inquiry, although officers were able to trace Mr Edgecombe because the girl had mentioned his first name to a social worker.
He admitted what had happened and was "visibly traumatised" on being told the girl was only 10, according to his barrister, Janet Gedrych.
The painter also became so upset that police granted him bail on condition that he leave his flat and go to live with his mother.
"This is an exceptional case," said Miss Gedrych, who added that her client was "embarrassed and ashamed".
Judge Evans viewed photographs of the girl before deciding on a non-custodial sentence, and told the accused: "She was a girl of 10 and you are a man of 20. Those bald facts do not properly represent the true facts of this case.
"The prosecution accepts that you believed she was 16 and that that belief was reasonable. She was looking for a man and got what she wanted."
By Ben Quinn
Last Updated: 8:15am BST 05/04/2007
A man who raped a 10-year-old girl was spared a jail sentence yesterday after a High Court judge agreed that the victim looked older.
Describing the case as "wholly exceptional", Mr Justice Roderick Evans said he understood why Liam Edgecombe, a 20-year-old painter, had thought that the child was 16 when they had sex last year.
Edgecombe, who was charged with rape, had entered a guilty plea on a basis accepted by the prosecution - that he believed she was 16, that she was presented as a person of that age and that he was entirely shocked to find out she was only 10.
He was granted a conditional discharge for 18 months but, apart from having to register with the police as a sex offender, no further punishment was imposed on him.
Swansea Crown Court heard how the girl was in the care of a local authority when she was taken on a shopping trip to a branch of Tesco on November 24 last year. Chris Clee, prosecuting, said she pretended to go to the lavatory and took her chance to "disappear".
That night she met Edgecombe outside a pub in the centre of Haverfordwest, west Wales, and he invited her back to his nearby flat in Hill Street, where they had intercourse twice.
Mr Clee said Edgecombe raised the subject of the girl's age but she asked him: "Does it matter?"
He said there was no doubt the girl consented to sex but because of her age the offence amounted to rape.
The following day police spotted her in the centre of the town and she was returned to care workers. She told them what had happened but refused to co-operate with the police inquiry, although officers were able to trace Mr Edgecombe because the girl had mentioned his first name to a social worker.
He admitted what had happened and was "visibly traumatised" on being told the girl was only 10, according to his barrister, Janet Gedrych.
The painter also became so upset that police granted him bail on condition that he leave his flat and go to live with his mother.
"This is an exceptional case," said Miss Gedrych, who added that her client was "embarrassed and ashamed".
Judge Evans viewed photographs of the girl before deciding on a non-custodial sentence, and told the accused: "She was a girl of 10 and you are a man of 20. Those bald facts do not properly represent the true facts of this case.
"The prosecution accepts that you believed she was 16 and that that belief was reasonable. She was looking for a man and got what she wanted."
