Clay Bamford 22

Description

A man has been jailed for raping one 13-year-old girl and sexually assaulting a second after they had been plied with alcohol by a group of street drinkers. Clay Bamford met the two schoolgirls after they had gone back to his fathers flat with other youngsters who had been drinking near Exeter Cathedral.

He carried on drinking with the girls before raping one under a duvet on the floor and putting his hands inside the clothing of the other. She was so terrified that she thought about jumping to safety from a first floor balcony but instead chose to stay with her friend.

Bamford, who had recently been released from jail for a street attack in Exeter, was due up in court the very next day for exposing himself to a policeman. He was also on bail for attacking a fellow inmate while serving his previous sentence.

His assaults had appalling effects on the two girls. The rape victim tried to take her own life and is still receiving counselling almost two years later. The second says she still suffers nightmares and flashbacks.

The first girl said: I used to be happy, confident and not bothered by anything, Now I am empty and dark. I would like to see him suffer behind bars in the way he has made me suffer.

Bamford, aged 22, of King Arthurs Road, Exeter, denied rape and assault by penetration against one girl and sexual assault on the other. He was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court in December.

He was jailed for a total of nine years by Judge Stephen Climie at Exeter Crown Court. He ordered the sentence to run consecutively to the six year term which Bamford received for the prison attack very shortly after he carried out these offences. He was put on the sex offenders register for life and made subject to an order which restricts his future contact with under aged girls.

The judge told him: These two girls were vulnerable, at least psychologically, and certainly physically when it came to the prospect of what took place at your hands. It must have been apparent they were just 13 but despite that you took advantage of their age, their vulnerability and their use of alcohol.

Miss Heather Hope, prosecuting, said the attack happened in May 2022 when the girls had been drinking with people they met on the streets of Exeter. They went back to a flat occupied by Bamfords father Paul and he arrived to see his father and found the girls there.

The girl who was raped made it clear she did not want sex but Bamford carried on. She had disassociated herself and watched Tik-Tok videos during the actual rape.

Mr Joss Ticehurst, defending, said Bamford had not planned the sexual assaults or got the girls drunk but had been drawn into a situation which he came upon by chance at his fathers flat. He said: He was not a predator but took advantage of a situation in which he found himself.

Mr Ticehurst said Bamford had a very difficult childhood in which he was taken into care at the age of 13 months. He has no history of sexual offending other than the offence of exposure which happened as a response to being stopped by a male police officer.