Six footballers caged for rape

Posted Sunday, March 20, 2011 by thesun.co.uk

Six footballers caged for rape
Caged ... (from top left) Ashley Charles, Dennis De Sousa, Luke Farrugia, Courtney Amos, Jahson Downes and Jahvon Edwards

SIX footballers who had a midnight sex orgy in a park with two 12-year-old girls they treated "like pieces of flesh" have each been caged for two years.

A shocked court heard how they told of their "horror" when they discovered the girls were not 16 as they had claimed — before all were charged with rape.

The schoolgirls had sneaked away from a family party and began exchanging suggestive texts with the men — several of whom were part of the Reading FC football academy.

Judge Stephen John was told how one of the girls had texted the group to ask to be picked up, adding saucily: "We can have three each."

The six friends collected the pair in two Vauxhall Corsas and drove to a park in Reading, Berks, where one girl had sex with five of the men.

Horrified court officials heard how the girl called them over "one by one". The other girl had sex with one man.

The girls, who had been reported missing by one of their mothers, were later found wandering the streets at 2.20am by police and when asked what they were doing admitted they had had sex with a group of six men.

An appeal was launched to find those involved and soon all six men had handed themselves in and made full confessions.

Reading Crown Court heard all the men freely admitted having sex with the girls on February 21 last year, saying they had made "all the running" and had told them that they were 16.

The court heard they were said to have been "shocked and disgusted" to learn the true ages of the girls with one saying: "I've got a little sister about that age".

Courtney Amos, 19, Ashley Charles, 20, Dennis De Sousa, 18, Jahson Downes, 20, Jahvon Edwards, 19 and Luke Farrugia, 21, all admitted rape of a girl under the age of 13.

Downes is a former Reading FC academy player who until recently played for Basingstoke Town FC in Hampshire, while Ashley Charles also attended the academy.

Farrugia plays for Reading Town and Courtney Amos has completed two years of football coaching. The other two also play football for low division clubs.

Police analysis of the men's mobile phones showed one of the girls had been in touch with Edwards for a number of days.

When Edwards told her he was with five friends a message returned from the girl's phone saying "we can have three each" before a smiley face icon.

Prosecutor Alan Blake said: "The two girls left the family party surreptitiously, ducking down between parked cars so that one girl's father wouldn't see them leaving to meet the men.

"One girl said one of the males kept asking her for sex and she was initially reluctant but eventually gave into his persistence and she says only one male had sexual contact with her.

"The witnesses described how the boys went over to the other girl one at a time on the other side of the park and that she was calling them over and they were going one by one."

Defence lawyers, mitigating for the six defendants, described the case as "exceptional".

They highlighted the young girls' lies and said that if it had not been for their clients' honesty the Crown Prosecution Service would have had no case.

The judge also heard that the most active of the two girls mentioned in five of the six charges is being investigated over an unrelated false rape allegation and had a fake age on her Facebook page.

Martin Hooper, mitigating for both Charles and Downes, echoed comments by his fellow defence counsel that his clients' lives had been devastated by what happened that night.

Both had hoped to have careers in football coaching but were no longer able to because of sex offence restrictions.

Defending Mr de Sousa, Sheilagh Davies said that when officers told him the girls ages he was "disgusted" adding: "Oh my goodness. I have got a little sister about that age".

Judge John sentenced Downes, from Reading, Amos, of Caversham, Berks, Charles of Coley, Berks, De Sousa, of Tilehurst, Berks, and Edwards of West Reading, to be detained for two years in a Young Offenders' Institute. Farrugia, of West Reading, was sent to prison for two years.

He said: "Having said that, it is clear to me that all of you were utterly reckless in what you did that night.

"These girls were entirely unknown to you. You saw these girls as willing sexual partners, which they were, and behaved towards them as if they were simply pieces of flesh, not people.

"By acting as you did, you will have confirmed in them twisted views of what sex is about and further entrenched in them thoroughly inappropriate behaviour."

He said he accepted the leading girl was willing and, despite only being 12 years old, had not been a virgin at the time. The other, he said, was clearly more reluctant.

The judge added: "But no-one can ever tell what effect such an inappropriate experience can have on a girl of such an age.

"Experience shows that the effects can be long-lasting and they have the potential for impeding the normal process of growing up and of forming normal relationships with members of the opposite sex of an appropriate age."