Mansfield man raped schoolgirl then told disgusting lie about it

Lee Whalley will now spend most of the rest of his life behind bars

A man who raped and sexually assaulted a schoolgirl has been jailed for more than 20 years. Lee Whalley, now 62, first became known to police in 2017 when his victim came forward to report the abuse in Nottinghamshire that dated back several years.

Whalley was arrested by Nottinghamshire Police and repeatedly denied having any sexual contact with the girl, who was an adult when she made the report. Detectives later recovered an incriminating series of backed-up mobile phone messages from his computer.

The messages were sent when the victim was an adult and referenced sexual activity between the two and exposed his previous lies to officers. Several items of clothing containing the victim's DNA were also recovered from his home.

Whalley later claimed to have had an entirely consensual sexual relationship with the girl after she had turned 16. The case reached trial last month and Whalley was found guilty by a jury of two counts of raping a girl under the age of 13, four counts of sexual assault by touching, two counts of assault by penetration, and eight counts of sexual activity with a child.

Whalley, formerly of Mansfield, appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday, October 1, where he was jailed for 21 years. He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order which will restrict his activities when he is released from prison.

Detective Sergeant Lloyd Goucher, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Like many victims of childhood sexual assault, the woman at the heart of this case was reluctant to come forward and tell us about what had happened to her all those years before. Unsurprisingly, this abuse has already had a profound impact on her life and she was concerned that a criminal trial would add to the trauma she had already suffered.

“It is thanks, then, to her courage and determination that we were able to build such a compelling case against her abuser, and to expose his initial account for the fiction it was. Whalley groomed and sexually assaulted her over a number of years and will now spend much of the rest of his life in prison."