35-year-old Lawrence Fernandes, of Southampton, has been jailed for grooming a 13-year-old girl with a talking teddy bear and raped her.
Fernandes had given a vulnerable girl a teddy bear in which he recorded his own voice, telling her that he loved he and asked her to listen to it every night before she slept.
They had met through an online chat room and he travelled from Hampshire to Devon to meet her. He had raped the girl in a lane near her home the first time they met. He continued to force her into having sex even though she told him it was hurting and wanted him to stop.
Exeter Crown Court also heard that he had raped her several times over nine months. He had also raped her at a hotel near Exeter.
It was revealed in court that the vulnerable girl was looking for a shoulder to cry on as she was being bullied at school. The perpetrator would give her money, toys, chocolates, as well as alcohol.
The abuse came to an end when the girl decided to confront her tormentor in a public park, in Teignmouth. She shouted at him, saying that he was a paedophile and to leave her alone. However, she only found the courage to report the abuses ten years later.
Fernandes denied all of the allegations in court but was found guilty of two rapes and two offences of indecency. He was given six years imprisonment.
While sentencing, Recorder Ignatius Hughes told him, “You met this girl through an internet chat room and inveigled your way into her confidence. You travelled long distances to meet her and make her do what you wanted. Your one and only aim was to have sex with her. You subjected her to a painful attempt to penetrate her in the back of a care in a remote place and she repeatedly told you to stop. You gave her a toy bear with a voice recording unit and instructed her to listen to it each night before she went to sleep. No doubt at the age of 13, she did and would have your voice telling her you loved her.”
