2015: SCHOOLGIRL RAPE VICTIM TELLS OF "RELIEF" AS STOURBRIDGE MAN IS JAILED 18 YEARS ON
A STOURBRIDGE woman has spoken of her "relief" at hearing the man who raped her as a schoolgirl has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.Simon Davies, aged 38, of Birchfield Road, Wollescote, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court last Friday after being found guilty of raping and indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl back in 1997.
"It was like a weight had lifted" to see justice done 18 years on - the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said.
The court was told Davies was 21 when he and the girl went together to an area known as the Dingle in Pedmore to have sex and that contact between the pair started out consensually.
But her subsequent change of heart and repeated requests to stop were ignored – and as well as raping the schoolgirl, Davies also indecently assaulted her.
Recorder Nicholas Cartwright said: “She asked you to stop and you didn't.” He said since the offences were committed Davies had “led a blameless life” and a prosecution may never have been brought against him if he hadn’t contacted his victim’s sister to ask her out.
The Recorder said Davies had “shown no remorse” and the incident had resulted in the schoolgirl missing out on her teenage years and later being over protective with her own children.
Defense solicitor Chris Rodwell described what happened at the Dingle as “a consensual venture” and said the teenaged girl had been “just shy of her 16th birthday”.
He asked for Davies to be given “light at the end of the tunnel” but the Recorder jailed him for a total of four-and-a-half years.
Now aged 33, the victim - who admits she still finds it difficult to trust men - welcomed the sentence meted out "as long as he doesn't get early release" and she said she hopes it sends a clear message that "no means no".
