A man who groomed and then repeatedly raped a schoolgirl 20 years ago has been found guilty of five sexual offences.
Paul Richardson has been remanded to appear at Sheffield Crown Court for sentencing on August 21. He was convicted on July 24.
Richardson, 63, of Rotherham, abused the 15-year-old at hotels in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire after grooming her, Sheffield Crown Court heard. When the girl was 14, Richardson began giving her love letters, presents and alcohol. Sometimes he took her out on day trips.
In 2005, when Richardson was 42 and the girl was 15, he took her to a cinema, then on to a hotel in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire. At the hotel, Richardson gave the girl wine to drink. He then began kissing her.
In interviews with National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators, the victim, now in her 30s, said she repeatedly told Richardson she didn’t want him to kiss her, but Richardson continued and then raped her.
In the months that followed, Richardson raped the girl a further three times.
He took her to a hotel in Rotherham, where he attempted to rape the girl, and then later did rape her. On another occasion, across two days, he raped the girl twice at a house in Nottinghamshire.
The victim related how Richardson picked her up in his car – sometimes from school – and took her to places where she was then alone with him.
Whenever the victim told Richardson she did not want to have sex, he overpowered or manipulated her.
A trial at Sheffield Crown Court heard how Richardson knew the girl had a chaotic home life and set about making her feel dependent upon him for stability, so that she would not report the abuse. He threatened that if she told anyone about them, she would lose him and have no one.
In 2022, officers from Operation Stovewood, the NCA’s enquiry into historic allegations of sexual abuse in Rotherham, contacted the victim, who they believed had been sexually abused.
The victim told specially-trained investigators about the abuse and provided them with a phone which Richardson had given to her when she was a child, as a means of secretly contacting her. Officers retrieved several messages from the phone, many of which were sexual texts from Richardson to the girl.
Officers subsequently arrested Richardson and charged him in March 2024.
NCA senior investigating officer Kath Blain said, “Richardson purposefully made an extremely vulnerable girl trust and feel entirely dependent on him so that he could sexually abuse her. Once the girl was within his control, he raped her repeatedly and remorselessly. Richardson’s manipulation was so acute that the girl heartbreakingly came to believe his abuse was something she had to suffer in order not to be alone.”
Martin McRobb, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, said Richardson was calculating in his approach, targeting and grooming a child, exploiting her youth and vulnerability to place her in situations where he could use force to sexually abuse her.
The NCA said its Operation Stovewood remained the single biggest investigation of its kind, looking at allegations of abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. To date, 47 people, including Richardson, have been convicted.
