Europe

'A cruel paedophile': Officer guilty of raping 13-year-old girl

Ian Naude was a student officer at Cheshire Police when he assaulted the teenager in October 2017, raping her in his car and filming it on his phone.

He started working for the police in April 2017 even though he had been named as a suspect in a child grooming case in a neighbouring force in the months leading up to his appointment.

During a two-week trial, Naude was described as someone who was obsessed with taking the virginity of teenage girls – and the court heard that he had joined the police with the intention of meeting vulnerable victims.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found the 30-year-old guilty of rape, sexual assault, and four charges of attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence. He was also found guilty of arranging a child sex offence, relating to five complainants aged between 12 and 15.

Police believe there may be more victims who are yet to come forward.

Judge Clement Goldstone, who presided over the trial, warned he faces a “very significant sentence indeed”.

Naude admitted having sex with the 13-year-old girl, who he had met while on duty, but said she had consented.

He met his victim in October 2017 after being called to a domestic incident at her home. He contacted her on Facebook days later.

He exchanged sexual messages and images over social media before taking her out in his car and raping her.

The court heard Naude would gain the trust of young girls by posing as a 15-year-old called Jake Green on social media.

The father-of-one also had an account under the name Bruce Ian Wayne, a Batman reference, and a Snapchat account named King of the North.

Naude would persuade his victims to undress and sometimes perform sexual acts on camera, before sending them pictures and video of himself masturbating, the court heard.

In some cases, Naude threatened to send the photos to other people on the victims’ Facebook friends list and on one occasion told a victim he would harass her friends unless she sent him pictures.

He admitted two counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child, 14 counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one count of taking indecent photos of a child.

He also admitted four counts of making indecent photos of a child, six counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act, two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possessing indecent photos of a child.

However, he denied attempts to arrange to commit child sex offences – and claimed messages sent to girls asking them to meet were just fantasy.

Naude was accidentally copied into a police email which revealed the plan to arrest him after the victim came forward to report the rape.

When his phone was seized, officers found 756 images had been deleted from it. A laptop and another phone were found in a field in Market Drayton, after he gave a hand-drawn map of their location to his cellmate.

Martin McRobb, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Ian Naude claimed his victim had consented to sex. But the disturbing video of the incident on his phone did not show the face of a consenting woman. It showed the face of a sad, scared and abused 13-year-old girl.

“She had been groomed by a police officer who had a history of manipulating, pressurising and blackmailing young girls into performing sexual acts for his perverted pleasure.

“Ian Naude thought he could get away with it but, thankfully, his victim found the courage to tell her family what had happened.”

Naude was arrested the day after the teenager came forward, and was suspended, disciplined and removed by Cheshire Police.

Acting chief constable Janette McCormick personally apologised to the victim’s family and said the force had changed its recruitment and screening process.

But an investigation by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) found there was no case to answer for misconduct from any individual officer linked to his recruitment.

The teenage victim had been receiving specialist support from Cheshire Police.

He will be sentenced on 13 December.

Source: Read Full Article