It’s unfair to jail you, judge tells kidnapper
Woman who helped to snatch 16-year-old girl for rapist is told: ‘You’ve put all that behind you’
‘What happened was truly terrible’
A WOMAN who kidnapped a teenage girl before the youngster was raped has avoided a prison sentence after a judge said it would be ‘unfair’.
Helen Thompson, 43, had denied taking part in the kidnapping, but was convicted by a jury in June.
The victim, who cannot be named, was bundled into the boot of a car and driven to a flat by Thompson where she was raped.
Peter Livingston Jones, 55, and Raymond Dickens, 53, were jailed in June for a total of 38 years for their involvement in the case.
Thompson appeared before Warwick Crown Court to be sentenced for kidnapping.
But she was spared jail after a judge was told she had ‘worked hard’ to turn her life around since she was involved in the crime in 1998, when the victim was just 16. Instead, Thompson, of Rugby, Warkwickshire, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for a year.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said: ‘You are here because of a single incident that happened a very long time ago to a young woman who was being exploited by Peter Jones, who was convicted of many serious offences and has gone to prison for a very long time.
‘Your part in all this was a limited one, in that on one occasion Jones bundled that young woman into the boot of a car which you then drove to his flat. That was the extent of your involvement.
‘I don’t mean to belittle it, because what happened to her at that flat was truly terrible, and you could of course have said no. But there is no suggestion this wouldn’t have happened if you had not helped him. Someone else would have done so, because he had considerable power in that community at that time.
‘You are not the woman now that you were when you were a teenager. You have worked hard to put that behind you, and it would be quite unfair of me to send you to prison today.’
During the trial, the jury heard that Jones and Dickens were at the heart of a prostitution ring in Rugby in the Nineties.
They targeted vulnerable teenagers who were raped and sexually assaulted and forced to work as prostitutes for them.
Prosecutor Michael Shaw said that because Jones had been banned from driving, he was driven by Thompson and others. Jones befriended the 16-year- old after he was freed from a 16- year sentence for armed robbery.
But his attitude towards her changed after she told him that a video recorder he had left at a house in Rugby had been stolen.
He blamed her for the theft, beat her and told her she would have to ‘work the money off’.
Mr Shaw said: ‘He put a gun to her head and bundled her into the back of a car driven by Thompson before – because she wouldn’t stop crying – putting her in the boot.’ Thompson’s involvement in the incident ended when they got to his flat, but the jury heard that once inside, Jones raped the girl. Mohammed Latif, defending, said: ‘This is a sad case, both for the complainant, inevitably, but also for the defendant. She too was effectively the victim of others who used her. At the time she was a vulnerable person herself. She was exploited.
‘She has had to re-live her past from 20 years ago, and it has been a painful experience for her. Since then, she has built a life for herself, working hard and putting her past life behind her. She was the driver of the vehicle, she didn’t say or do anything. She didn’t have any knowledge of what happened after they arrived. She simply left after Peter Jones and the victim got out.’
Jones, of Coventry, was jailed in June for 22 years, and must serve at least two-thirds before being considered for release. Dickens, of Rugby, was jailed for 16 years.
Both were ordered to register as sex offenders for life.