Locations
Douglass Road, Plymouth, Devon, PL3
Description
A churchgoer who ‘blighted the childhood’ of a fellow worshipper by raping her when she was just 12 has been jailed for 20 years.
Ian Symonds started grooming the girl more than a year before the rape attack in a pub car park and went on to persuade her to have a three-year under-age relationship with him.
He brainwashed her into believing that God approved of them having sex and told her that the Virgin Mary was only 12 when she and Joseph first slept together.
He used his position as a drummer in a church band to meet and groom her and they had sex around 100 times, mainly in his works van in beauty spots including the Stover Country Park.
The girl, who was 18 years younger than him, only started having doubts about him when she watched EastEnders episodes which included a child abuse story line. Her parents became suspicious when she was 15 and restricted their meetings but Symonds set up a joint Facebook page under false names which they used to exchange messages and explicit photos. He also recorded a string of car karaoke videos in which he sang along to love songs in his van before pointing at the camera and saying ‘and I mean you’.
When she ended the relationship, he falsely claimed to have cancer to arouse her sympathies. In fact, he was a healthy bodybuilder who spent hours at a gym.
She wrote a victim personal statement which said she has distanced herself from the church and still suffers flashbacks and psychological trauma.
She said she cannot bear to be given flowers or chocolates because it still reminds her of the gifts which he showered on her when he was grooming her.
Symonds, aged 40, of Douglass Road, Plymouth was found guilty of two rapes, five counts of sexual activity with a child and one of making indecent images of the girl by a jury at Exeter Crown Court last week.
He was jailed for 20 years by Judge Timothy Rose, who put him on the sex offenders’ register for life and banned any future contact with under age girls through a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He told him: “These were a series of profoundly serious sexual offences over three years. It is perfectly clear you developed a sexual interest and obsession with her.
“She was confused, as you would expect given her age and immaturity and the reality is that you brainwashed her into engaging in frequent and continued sexual activity.
“You bombarded her with gifts and comprehensively manipulated her in a way which blighted her childhood and has had a devastating effect on her emotional well-being.
“It was persistent and hugely damaging child abuse.”