Locations
New Street, Huddersfield, Kirklees, HD3
Description
A CHILD rapist is beginning a 10-year prison sentence after his young victim confronted him via harrowing text messages.
Milnsbridge man Nathan Whitehead, 28, began abusing the girl, who cannot be identified, when she was only 11.
And it was not until she turned 16 that she was able to confront him about his “sick” crimes.
Prosecutor Richard Gioserano told Bradford Crown Court the complainant had managed to bring an end to the abuse early in 2010, but in June this year she received a text from Whitehead simply saying: “Hi what are you up to?”
“She decided that she would then send text messages in reply to get him to admit what he had been doing to her,” said Mr Gioserano.
Over a two-hour period a large number of messages were exchanged between them and Whitehead admitted in one of them: “I got it wrong. I thought you liked it towards the end.”
The girl replied: “No why would I. You’re 11 years older than me ... you shouldn’t have touched me in the first place ... it’s sick.”
Whitehead, of New Street, also said: “I’m sorry for everything. I understand if you don’t want to talk to me. I’m sorry I got it so wrong.”
Bradford Crown Court heard the complainant finally told her mother about the abuse and in July Whitehead was arrested and questioned after he voluntarily handed himself in to the police.
During his interview, Whitehead denied having sex with the girl before she was 13, but yesterday Mr Gioserano explained that his guilty pleas to three specimen charges of rape amounted to an admission of nine incidents of rape when the girl was aged 11 and 12.
Whitehead, who had no previous convictions, had been due to stand trial on further allegations of sexual abuse, but the prosecution accepted his guilty pleas to three specimen charges of sexual activity with the same complainant after the age of 13.
Whitehead’s barrister Gillian Batts said he had offered apologies to the complainant and her mother and it was unusual in such cases for defendants to make admissions at an early stage.
The Honorary Recorder of Bradford Judge James Stewart QC jailed Whitehead for 10 years on the rape charges with a concurrent three years for the sexual activity with a child offences.
Judge Stewart also imposed an indefinite sexual offences prevention order which bans him from having contact with the complainant and restricts his unsupervised access to any child under 18.
Whitehead will also have to register as a sex offender with the police for the rest of his life.