Locations
The Headlands, Northampton, West Northamptonshire, NN3
Description
A 24-year-old man has been jailed in absentia after he was found guilty of sexually abusing four girls.
Raeshon Dean Everton Rose, of The Headlands, Northampton, first started abusing the girls, who were all children, when he was a teenager. The abuse lasted for six years.
The court heard how Rose abused his victims on multiple occasions, forcing them to perform oral sex on him and repeatedly sexual assaulting them.
In 2021, one of the girls bravely told a friend about the abuse which had taken place when she was younger and this started a process which would set a police investigation in motion.
Northamptonshire Police would go on to find three other girls who Rose had sexually abused.
After pleading not guilty to the charges, Rose appeared at Northampton Crown Court in July where the trial jury found him guilty of eight counts of sexually assaulting a child aged under 13, five counts of child rape and one of causing or inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.
On Thursday, August 28, he was sentenced to a total of six-and-a-half years in prison.
However, the court was then told the defendant was being sentenced in absentia after he fled the UK while on bail from the earlier hearing.
Northamptonshire Police is now carrying out extensive inquiries to determine his whereabouts and bring him back to the UK to serve his sentence.
Det Supt Jen Castle, head of child safeguarding, said:
“It is deeply distressing for the victims to discover Rose has fled the country – and justice – following his trial. Northamptonshire Police is doing all it can to locate the defendant and ensure that he serves his sentence.
“The four young women in this case have shown tremendous bravery and I cannot stress that enough. They have found courage they should never have had to call upon.
“Raeshon Rose’s crimes lasted more than half a decade and we are appealing for anyone who knows anything about his whereabouts to contact us on 101.
“Northamptonshire Police takes all forms of sexual abuse incredibly seriously. If you have been subjected to any form of assault or abuse, please come forward and report it to us. We will listen. We will believe you. And we will do all we can to bring those responsible to account.