Joshua Brown from Kent jailed for raping Sandwell schoolgirl

Joshua Brown got the girl’s phone number from a friend and they started texting each other.

According to police, Brown knew at the time that the girl was only 12 years old, but continued the conversations, resulting in thousands of text messages between the two over the course of six weeks.

Eventually he traveled to the girl and raped her in the back seat of his car.

A few weeks later, the girl told her mother what had happened and the crime was reported to the police.

Brown, 34, of Robin Hood Green, Orpington, was tracked down using his vehicle registration and arrested by the Metropolitan Police.

Although he initially denied any wrongdoing, police saved data from both phones and found thousands of messages between them in which he repeatedly referred to her age and said he knew he was going to prison.

He was charged with two counts of rape of a girl under 13, sexual solicitation of a child, possession of indecent images of a child and solicitation of a girl under 13 to engage in sexual conduct. He pleaded guilty to all offences at his first hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Wednesday 19 June.

Brown was sentenced to nine years in prison, suspended for a further year, and faces a sexual harm prevention order for 20 years.

PC Adrian Jackson, of West Midlands Police’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team, said: “We commend the girl’s courage in coming forward and her persistence throughout the investigation.

“We have specialist officers who understand how difficult it is to report crimes of a sexual nature and we are there to help victims at every step of the investigation and prosecution process.”