February 2015
Ten years for man who raped girl, 8
A PAEDOPHILE who abused the same young girl four times in a single day has been jailed for ten years.
The child was eight or nine years old when Adrian Joseph Martin Rennie, 25, visited her home, a York jury heard last December.
On different occasions on the same day, he raped her, tried to rape her and incited her to engage in sexual activity with him.
He told her to keep secret what he was doing, but she eventually told a relative and a friend.
The child, now 12, wrote a letter to the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, about the crimes. She had to go through the ordeal of giving evidence about exactly what Rennie did to her, because he denied all charges.
The judge told Rennie: “What you did to her has caused her very considerable suffering. It is plainly going to take her a long time to get over these events.
“It was extremely serious offending by an adult male against a child in a gross breach of trust.”
The jury convicted Rennie, of Eason View, Dringhouses, of rape, attempted rape and two charges of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity
In addition to the ten-year jail term, Rennie was put on the sex offenders’ register for life.
He will be subject to restrictions on his behaviour when he is released, the court was told.
Detective Constable Theresa Wright, of North Yorkshire Police’s Protecting Vulnerable Person’s Unit, said: “Adrian Rennie has quite rightly been jailed for committing some truly unspeakable actions against a young child.
“The court process is difficult for anybody to deal with but is particularly difficult for young children.
“The victim has shown great courage throughout the proceedings.
“I hope the outcome of this case will show that incidents of this nature are dealt with sensitively by North Yorkshire Police and will encourage more victims of sexual abuse to come forward.”
For Rennie, Emma Bennett said there was very little mitigation she could give because he refused to accept that he was guilty.
The day before the court hearing, he had received a Facebook message which was “not particularly pleasant” and she handed a copy up to the judge.
He said the message was similar to those received by people in a similar situation and ordered that a copy be sent to the prison where Rennie will be held.
His barrister said Rennie had no previous convictions and the offences had taken place over a short period of time.
The judge said the offences had had a “devastating impact” on people close to Rennie, who found it difficult to understand why someone they counted as a friend, and had supported, had behaved the way he had.
