Families weep as young man sentenced for having sex with underage teenager

THE families of a young man and an underage teenager both wept in court as he was sentenced for having sex with her, including once in a Derby park.

Ryan Crossley was set to begin working full-time as a labourer on June 1 but will instead now start a two-year sentence in a young offender institution.

Prosecutor Siward Jones-Moore told Derby Crown Court that Crossley, who is now 19, began messaging the girl when he was 18 in April 2021 until the end of May 2021. They had sex at Alvaston Park and had sex again in July.

Mr Jones-Moore said: “She described being pressured, saying she was not sure initially, but she consented to it.”

At a hearing on October 15 last year, Crossley, of Wood Road, Chaddesden, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a girl under the age of 16.

In a victim impact statement, the mother of the girl described Crossley’s offending as a “disgraceful, disgusting ordeal”.

She said: “This is one of the hardest things I have had to write. This has ruined me as a mother.

“I am supposed to protect my daughter and I could not even do that. I don’t have a clue what was happening to her. I am devastated.

“She does not talk about what happened to her and I am not sure she has fully processed it yet. I am worried she is not dealing with the matter or the mental impact it will have on her. I will never forgive you [Crossley] for what you did.”

Lucky Thandi, mitigating, said the contact began as phone conversations but Crossley was “drawn in by the connection” he had with the victim. She also said that Crossley, who was joined by his own family in court, had no previous convictions.

She said: “He knows that he should have known better. The defendant knows and accepts that the contact was wrong. She was underage at the time and that is something that Mr Crossley will never be able to get away from for the rest of his life, and he readily admits that his life is ruined as a result.”

Recorder Adrian Reynolds said: “There are two things that I can’t overlook. The first is that you did not have sex with this girl once but twice. It was not something that happened on one day and while the throes of passion were still high, it happened again a few days later. It was weeks later.

“You had every chance to consider what you were doing and think about the importance of it...I fail to detect any sort of affection between you and this girl. What happened was purely exploitative. This was nothing to do with affection, warmth or caring. This was just sex. You were just using this girl for sex and I am not prepared to overlook that.”

As well as the two-year jail term, Crossley must sign on the sex offender register for 10 years, was made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and must pay a £128 victim surcharge. Police did not release a custody image of Crossley.