Olympic swimmer 'manipulated' teen victims to fulfil his own sexual desires

Prosecutors are now considering whether to retry Antony James on five counts of rape and one count of sexual activity with a child

A former student police officer and swimmer who represented Britain at the London 2012 Olympic games was "well aware" of how young his victims were, the CPS has said.

Antony James, aged 34 and from Crownhill, was convicted by a 10-strong jury of eight charges, including three counts of rape of girls over 16, three of sexual activity with a child and two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

The jury could not reach a verdict on one count of sexual activity with a child, and five counts of rape. The Crown Prosecution Service has been given until October 23 to decide whether to seek a retrial on those counts.

The judge directed not guilty verdicts for three counts of intentionally encouraging/assisting an offence.

James - who represented Great Britain at the 2012 London Games and the Commonwealth Games in 2010 where he won a silver and bronze medal - was a student officer with Devon and Cornwall Police at the time of his arrest. He had denied all the charges, which took place over a 10-year period between 2012 and 2022.

Following the guilty verdicts, Gemma Kneebone from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Antony James manipulated and controlled his teenage victims to fulfil his own sexual desires.

"He claimed that these young victims were over 16 at the time, but this was a lie which collapsed under scrutiny. James was well aware of how young these victims were, and he set out to take advantage of this in a truly appalling manner, continuing to offend against them after they turned 16.

"This prosecution would not have been possible without the evidence so bravely provided by the young women involved, and I would like to thank them for coming forward to support the case.

"The CPS is determined to deliver justice for victims of sexual abuse – and for every victim to have confidence that we will not hesitate to bring the strongest possible charges against those who carry out these heinous crimes."

During the trial the jury heard how James had claimed to a woman that one of the "hottest things" a girl had called him in the bedroom was "Daddy".

Prosecutor Lee Bremridge told the jury that James "knew all about psychology" as he manipulated the girls, having studied for a degree in psychology at Plymouth University, graduating in 2015.

The jury was told that following James' arrest in 2022 police found evidence of James using the Chaturbate sexual internet site and recovered messages from 2019 under the name "daddyscock2019", where he referenced the name of an underage girl who he later raped in the back of his car when she was 16.

The court heard how he told an anonymous woman online that she looked a lot like the underage girl, describing her as "very sexy", adding that he would "love to see her [the underage girl] naked".

When asked by the woman what the girl's name was, he gave her a shortened version of the name, which matched the shortened version of his victim, before asking the online woman "do you think she would f*** me?"

Mr Brembridge said James had effectively groomed this girl over time until she would do, as she said to police, "literally anything".

The jury were told his phone was examined by police. Investigators discovered that at a time when he was at Devon and Cornwall Police's headquarters training to be a police officer he sent a message to the same girl - whose photos had been found on his phone - asking "tell me, do you like big c****?"

During the trial the jury heard how James had made attempts to get his first teenage victim to have sex with him and another man who was described in court as "one of his best friends".

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