Solomon Asemota 32

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A predator raped two 12-year-old girls after meeting them on Snapchat and plying them with booze and drugs. Solomon Asemota, 30, initially began by grooming the girls online.

He raped one girl during a game of ‘Truth or Dare’, then raped both girls in his car on another occasion, Manchester Crown Court heard. When they asked how old he was, and if he was 18 or 19, he told them: “I can be”. The rapist, who was 27 time at the time, admitted that he never told them his age.

Asemota, of Longsight, pleaded guilty to seven offences of rape and was jailed today for 10 years with an extended licence period of a year. 

Prosecuting, Simon Blakebrough said police were called on January 9, 2020 when one of the girls was reported missing. After further calls they tracked down one of the girls to a house in Cheetham Hill, and she was told to come home.

One of the girls did, and told police that the other girl was at ‘Prince’s house’. The officers asked her where the house was, and escorted her there. They found the other victim in bed with a man, who was later arrested.

There was no scientific evidence linking him to the sexual acts with the girls and no further action was taken, the prosecutor said. Though forensic evidence later linked Asemota to the girls.

The girls were spoken to and ‘Prince’ was identified as Asemota. He was arrested and after arriving at the police station he was told of the allegation and responded: “I’m shocked at the ages, I didn’t know they were that young.”

“He was interviewed and admitted meeting [them] on Snapchat,” Mr Blakeborough said. “He said he was sent some pictures of them and thought they were 16 or 17 but ‘looked young’. He added that they 'couldn't be as young as 12'.

“He said they asked him how old he was and whether he was 18 or 19, and he answered: “I could be”. He accepts he never told them his real age, which was 27.”

He met the first victim and had sex with her after playing a game of ‘Truth or Dare’, the prosecutor said. He also admitted having sex with the girls in the back of his car, and admitted engaging in sexual acts on one in front of the other.

Asemota admitted to the police that one of the girls was drunk and said he ‘always kept vodka in his car’. He also said after one encounter he dropped a girl off at her friend’s house, and was approached by the friend's mum who banged on the car window and 'forcefully informed him he had a child in the car.

When asked why he thought she said that, he said: “Maybe she was not 18 or she was just angry”.

On January 9, he said one of the girls had been kicked out and so he took them both to his aunt's house where they smoked cannabis. He said he then took them to friends house in Cheetham Hill and had sex with one of them after suggesting his friend to have sex with the other. He admitted not wearing a condom.

Analysis of his mobile phone also showed he had taken intimate videos of the girls.

In victim impact statements, one of the girls, now 15, outlined her troubled home life at the time and said she felt like she couldn’t tell anyone what was happening as she was scared. She said she didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to report it due to the fear of repercussions.

The other girl, now 14, said she cries herself to sleep, has flashbacks and has trouble trusting people - especially men. “I feel like I’m to blame, but I know I am not,” she said.

A specialist nurse who supports children who are sexually exploited said both girls had experienced ‘significant trauma’ and said they felt a sense of ‘guilt and shame’. “The impact upon them will be sustained and life long,” they added.

Mitigating, Michael Johnson said Asemota was candid in his police interview and made ‘significant admissions’. “This is a man who’s never been to prison before, it will inevitably be painful. He is entirely the author of his own misfortune,” he said.

Jailing him for 10 years with an extended licence period of a year, Judge Rachel Smith said: “Both victims were highly vulnerable and highly susceptible to exploitation. Your relationship with each of the girls was predatory and opportunistic.

“You exploited each of them for your own gratification. You spent sufficient time with them to know what they were like, and there is evidence of grooming, providing them with company, transport, food, and later alcohol and drugs.”

She added that a pre-sentence report concluded that he was a high risk of causing serious harm to children and that he had adjusted his behaviour to appear younger in an effort to ‘indulge’ the grooming.

Asemota, of Queens Grove, Longsight, was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 20 years and must sign onto the Sex Offenders Register for life.