RAPIST BROUGHT TO JUSTICE AFTER GROOMING AND ABUSING GIRL FROM AGE OF 12
Jayden Connor, now 19, had started grooming and engaging in sexual contact with the girl in 2023 when he was 17 and she was just 12.At Bolton Crown Court, the girl described how she had been vulnerable at the time and how she had been affected both physically and mentally since.
She said: "I started to realise it was real, what he did to me was real.
It affected me mentally.
I struggled to go into school, my emotions have been up and down, sometimes I have been angry with people who are around me.
I have had some good moments and some bad.
The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Anthony Moss)." Connor’s crimes came to light after the girl’s mother found that he had been grooming her daughter over private messages he had been sending to her phone.
He was arrested on April 9, 2024, and charged on May 12, 2025, before being brought before Bolton Crown Court the following June to enter his pleas.
Connor, of Buckley Road, Gorton, confessed to two counts of raping a girl under 13 and two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
He also admitted to two counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child.
Connor was jailed for eight years and given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order with an indefinite restraining order.
Detective Constable Hannah Young stated: "The brave young victim-survivor had tremendous courage to come forward and report this to police, and we hope this sentence offers her and her family a sense of justice.
We are committed to ensuring survivors are listened to, believed and supported.
Our message to any other survivors who have not yet come forward or are not in a place to support a prosecution at this time, is that whenever you are ready, we will listen, and we will take action."
