Woman judge’s fury as she has to punish boy of 17 for sex with friend, 15
A JUDGE has attacked prosecutors for pressing charges against a teenager who had sex with a girl shortly before she turned 16 after the pair had been out drinking.
Imposing a token penalty on Connor O’Keefe, who was 17 at the time, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said: ‘I don’t know what the world has come to when I am asked to deal with two teenagers who got drunk and had sex.’
She told O’Keefe she was ‘ extremely sorry’ he was in the dock over ‘a teenage incident which should never have come near the courts at all’.
The pair were among a group of teenagers who had gathered in a Morrisons car park in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, in the early hours of the morning. The girl, described as ‘ nearly 16’, was drunk after attending the town’s Peace Festival last June, Warwick Crown Court was told.
She initially claimed O’Keefe had raped her in the car park, but doubts were cast on her story, including CCTV footage of them going together to meet friends at a McDonald’s after the supposed attack.
A rape charge against O’Keefe was dropped and the Crown Prosecution Service accepted his plea of guilty to the alternative offence of sexual activity with a child.
But when he appeared for sentencing, Judge de Bertodano said the case boiled down to ‘consensual sex between two teenagers’. She added: ‘I have to deal with this on the basis that a 17-year-old had sex with a girl who was almost 16, and they had both had too much to drink. What are we doing here? But still the prosecution wanted to press on.’
The judge told O’Keefe: ‘I feel extremely sorry for you having to end up in this position.
‘Clearly this started as a very serious case, but what it comes to is simply a teenage incident which should never have come near the courts at all.’
She added: ‘I want you to go away with that ringing in your ears and for it not to cast a shadow over the rest of your teenage years.
‘You have been through a great deal as a result of this. I hope you can now put it behind you.’
Judge de Bertodano gave him a one-month conditional discharge and ordered him to register as a sex offender for two weeks.
Prosecutor Andrew Wallace had told the court the victim had drunk a large quantity of alcohol and that O’Keefe, from Warwick, had ‘tried it on’ with one of her friends.
The girl told police he removed her knickers and raped her in the supermarket car park before abandoning her. But when his defence team obtained CCTV footage, it became clear they had left together and both gone to McDonald’s.
Graeme Simpson, defending, told the court that ‘what it showed was Connor and her leaving Morrisons’ car park seeming quite happy together and making their way into the centre of Leamington’.
He added: ‘There was then CCTV of her in the fast-food restaurant chatting to people and climbing over barriers.’
It also emerged that, contrary to her account, she did not have underwear on at the time of the alleged attack. Mr Simpson said her account was ‘significantly undermined’.
Last night the CPS said: ‘This case came to court as the result of a credible allegation made by the victim. It was right that this was brought to court.’