Man jailed after he paid for taxi to bring teenage girl 60 miles from her school to his home before r@ping her
Before raping an adolescent girl, a perpetrator paid for a taxi to transport her almost 60 miles across the nation.
The child, under 16, was first introduced to the man, Jake O’Neil, 33, in an internet chat room where he fostered her before transferring the conversation to Snapchat.
Despite the girl’s disclosure that she was young, O’Neil sent her graphic texts until she banned him. But he kept messaging her with a different persona.
In December 2021 he paid for a taxi to bring her 65 miles from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, UK to his home in Wilmslow where he raped her.
Her family then contacted the police when she didn’t come to school. O’Neil tried to conceal his crimes by smashing her phone and throwing it into a river, but police men traced her location to Cheshire.
He left the girl alone while he went shopping but when he returned found police officers were at the house to arrest him. After his arrest, O’Neill admitted having sex with the girl on two other dates that month, claiming he believed she was 16 at the time.
However, he was charged with eight charges, including rape, attempted rape, child abduction, grooming, and four counts of penetration. Following a trial, he was found guilty by a jury at Chester Crown Court on Friday, January 5.
On Tuesday (March 5) he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with a five-year extension by a judge. Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Charlotte Astbury from Cheshire Police, who led the investigation, said: “O’Neil clearly knew she underage – we even found a message he sent to someone admitting she was underage.
“Knowing this, O’Neil took advantage of a vulnerable teenager, going to great lengths to groom her for his own warped intentions and is now paying the price for this with a prison sentence.”