Jail for man who raped girl when he was in his teens

The girl – now a young woman – spoke of the ‘sense of dread’ she felt on ‘each and every occasion’ she was invited into Jake Nolan’s bedroom to endure what she later realised were sickening sex assaults.

Having given evidence at Nolan’s trial in October, the woman – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – spoke of the devastating impact the now 26-year-old’s abuse has had upon her.

Prosecutor Mark Seymour suggested that the impact on the victim could amount to ‘extreme psychological harm’, putting the offending in the most serious category in the sentencing guidelines given to judges.

“If the level of harm in terms of psychological impact that is obviously writ large in the statement doesn’t constitute extreme harm it is really quite hard to see what would – short, actually, a complainant ending her own life,” the barrister said.

Sending him to prison for five years for rape of a child under-13 and causing or inciting a child under-13 to engage in sexual activity, Judge Maria Lamb told Nolan: “The impact which you have had upon your victim has been devastating. It is clear – quite wrongly – that she blamed herself for what had been done to her.

“She has no reason to reproach herself at all.

"She was a child at the time these things were perpetrated against her by you.”

Judge Lamb described the victim’s impact statement as ‘heartbreaking’.

Had Nolan been an adult when he carried out the abuse and not a child in his early teens, he would have faced a prison sentence around twice as long as the one he actually received.

John Carmichael, mitigating, reminded the judge of his client’s difficult upbringing. Noting that the offences had been committed while Nolan was drunk or under the influence of alcohol, he said: “One asks oneself the question what on earth is he doing with the alcohol? Where was the control from the family?”

Nolan’s older brother had been jailed for sexual offending of his own, the court heard. Mr Carmichael said his client had grown up with a ‘lack of role models’.

The defendant’s education had been disrupted, he had ‘intellectual difficulties’ and he had not worked for a number of years.

Nolan, of Grange Beck, Didcot, will be on the sex offender register for life and will be subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward