Description
A ROTHERHAM man aged 42 raped a 15 year old girl after taking her to the cinema, then on to a hotel where he plied her with wine before the offence happened.
Paul Richardson, now aged 63, had been grooming his victim from the age of 14, when he sent her love letters, presents and alcohol, along with day trips out.
At the hotel, in Bassetlaw, Richardson raped her after kissing her against her will.
He went on to rape her a further three times in the months which followed and has now been convicted of his sexual offences against her - 20 years ago.
The offences took place in hotels and a house in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, Sheffield Crown Court was told.
Richardson was prosecuted as part of the National Crime Agency’s Operation Stovewood, the investigation into historic child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
His victim is now aged 30s and told NCA investigators that Richardson picked her up in his car, sometimes from school, and took her to locations where they were alone together.
When she told him she did not want to have sex, he overpowered or manipulated her, she told investigators.
His trial jury heard that Richardson knew the girl had a chaotic home life and set out to make her feel dependent on him for stability - so she would not report the abuse.
He threatened that if she told anyone, she would lose him and be alone.
However, in 2022, investigations under Operation Stovewood led to officers contacting the victim and she explained what had happened.
Richardson had given her a phone, so she could secretly contact him - meaning officers could retrieve messages between them, many of which were sexually oriented texts from him to her.
That led to him being charged in March last year.
Following conviction, he was remanded in custody and will be sentenced later in August.
NCA investigating officer Kath Blain said: “Richardson purposefully made an extremely vulnerable girl trust him and feel entirely dependent on him so that he could sexually abuse her.
“Once the girl was within his control, he raped her repeatedly and remorselessly.”