Locations
Bath Melksham and Wiltshire
Description
A babysitter left alone with a 13-year-old girl held a knife to her neck and raped and indecently assaulted her.
Adrian Barnett, now 43, attacked the girl between 1996 and 2000, and has now been jailed for six and a half years.
Sickened police said Barnett was a violent man who has since shown no remorse for his actions.
Swindon Crown Court heard Barnett was babysitting the girl in the late 1990s in Melksham, Wiltshire, when the attack took place. He later lived in Twerton, Bath.
At the time, the traumatised girl could not bring herself to tell police what happened, but officers revisited the case and spoke again to the victim, now in her early 30s.
Adrian Barnett is a violent man who has shown no remorse for his actions, said DCI Jeremy Carter, from Wiltshire police. On a date between 1996 and 2000, he abused his position of trust as a babysitter for an innocent 13-year-old girl.
While he was supposedly looking after the young girl, he held a knife to her neck, and raped her.
Understandably, this incident had a long lasting impact on the young victim who felt unable to give an account to police officers at the time.
However, Wiltshire Police reviewed the case last year, and further enquiries were carried out. As a result of the reinvestigation, the victim felt able to cooperate with police which has led to the successful prosecution of Barnett.
I would like to take this opportunity to praise the victim in this case who has shown a huge amount of bravery and courage throughout. No doubt the actions of this man will have had a huge impact on her life but I hope that this sentencing will go some way in helping her to rebuild her life and move on, he added.
Police said they hoped the case would encourage adults who had been the victims of similar crimes years ago to come forward now.
I would also like to commend the staff involved in this investigation who have worked closely with the victim to put this predator behind bars, said DCI Carter.