FOUR YEARS FOR GIRL'S RAPIST
TEENAGER Ronald Hoskins from Weymouth was sentenced to four years in a young offender institution after raping a 12-year-old schoolgirl.Hoskins, 18, of Links Road, was sentenced at Dorchester Crown Court by Judge John Beashel yesterday.
Hoskins was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict last month, after pleading not guilty to raping the girl on September 2 last year.
The court heard how he pushed a girl up against a tree in a wood near Weymouth, before forcing her on to the ground and raping her.
A friend of the girl was standing within earshot at the time and called out to her as the assault was taking place.
Adam Hiddleston, representing Hoskins, admitted his client's crime was a 'grave offence', but said, "This is a young man with no previous convictions.
He accepts that he is likely to receive a custodial sentence of some length, but this is an offence perhaps at the lower end of the scale." Judge Beashel told Hoskins: "You raped a 12-year-old girl when you were 17.
That is a very serious matter." He placed Hoskins on the sex offenders list and disqualified him from working with children in the future.
Hoskins' crime came to light when his victim confided in a teacher at school that she feared she was pregnant.
During the trial the girl gave evidence via videolink to the courtroom, saying that after the rape her legs were shaking and she was in pain.
She told the court she and a friend were playing on their scooters by a rope swing, when Hoskins took her down a path on her own.
She became scared when he grabbed her wrist and she tried to push him away.
The girl told the court during the trial: "He pushed me down on to the floor."
