A YORK man who filmed himself raping a teenage girl in a "grotesque" attack lasting several hours has been jailed for ten years.

Leon Michael Robson, 29, knew the vulnerable teenager and used "extreme forms of pressure" to commit an act the judge called "grotesque".

The court heard Robson phoned his victim at 4am one day this summer, demanding she send him intimate photographs of herself, probably with the intention of using them to blackmail the girl in the future.

He picked the girl up from her home and drove her to his house in Acomb. The court heard she cried on the way to his house, and when they arrived, he forced her to commit a number of sex acts.

When she tried to leave, the court heard Robson threatened to hang himself after writing a letter to a close relative blaming his victim for his suicide if she did not agree to stay. When she did not leave, Robson raped her and filmed part of the act, referred to by Judge Paul Batty QC as "a brutal affair", on his mobile phone.

Alex Menary, for Robson, said his client denied the charge of rape, the sex acts were all consensual, and the video was taken for his own personal viewing.

York Press: York Crown Court - zxc

York Crown Court

Judge Batty QC said: "It was a brutal affair.

"It was brutal stuff and you quite cynically captured it on your mobile phone when she was pleading with you "no, no". It was grotesque in the extreme.

"The depth of the child's misery is well-illustrated by a cry from the heart that she made at just before 5.30am that very morning, in which she sent a message to ChildLine stating her fears of you, her feelings of hopelessness, and what you were threatening to do to her if she did not comply with your demands.

"It is chilling aspect of this case that virtually everything she was stating to ChildLine and her fears for her future actually then were played out on this day."

Robson sat hunched over in the dock as the judge recapped the details of the charge against him, and his family wept in the public gallery as he was taken to the cells.

He was sentenced to 10 years for rape of the girl, and a two-year concurrent sentence for making an indecent video of an underage girl. He will be on the sex offenders' register for life.

Detective Constable Michelle Waite, of the York Serious Crime Team welcomed the sentence, which she said reflected the seriousness of the offence.

She said: "No jail sentence can ever undo the trauma she has experienced, but I hope the fact that Robson is now serving a lengthy prison sentence, brings her some comfort that justice has been done.’

"Anyone who is affected by sexual abuse, whether it is happening now, or occurred many years ago, should not hesitate to come forward to the police or contact one of the many agencies who can help."

North Yorkshire's Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) directly on 01904 669339 turntobridgehouse.org