Jamie Leppard locked up after raping unconscious girl while friend filmed it on mobile phone
Published: 11:00, 01 August 2016
Updated: 11:16, 01 August 2016
Two perverts have been locked up over the rape and sexual assault of a drunk and unconscious girl as her friend filmed it on a mobile phone.
Jamie Leppard, of Sword Grove, Wainscott, was convicted in June of raping the victim.
Harry Ludlow, of Leeward Road, Rochester, admitted one offence of sexually assaulting the girl.
Tommy Conway, 19, of no fixed address, denied two offences of sexually assaulting her, but was convicted.
Ludlow was also to be sentenced for four offences of sexual activity with a child, committed when he was aged 14 and the victim was 10, but his case was adjourned for four weeks for a medical assessment.
Leppard, 19, was sentenced to eight years youth custody and Conway, 19, to two years and five months.
Judge Philip Statman said the vulnerable victim had been “humiliated and degraded”.
“She was comatose through drink,” he told Leppard. “She was completely unable to consent because she was unconscious.”
Maidstone Crown Court heard the 18-year-old rape victim was so inebriated that she was not aware of what happened until the friend later sent her the video clips.
She had earlier been to a birthday party in Medway and drank “everything from vodka, Malibu, Bacardi, beer and wine”.
Around midnight in March last year she and a friend met up with Leppard, then aged 17.
They, Conway, Ludlow and others bought vodka and went to a house in Medway.
There, they played drinking games.
After Leppard led the girl upstairs the friend burst into the bedroom shouting: “Oi, oi”. She saw Leppard on top of her friend and said “Oh s---”.
As she filmed them, Conway and Ludlow ran into the room. Conway jumped on top of Leppard while he was having sex.
He and Ludlow were imitating Leppard’s motions and making groaning noises.
Prosecutor Nina Ellin said the victim was “clearly unconscious or out of it, or passed out - or just asleep”.
The friend went downstairs but reflected on what she had seen and went back. Leppard was now behind the girl having sex with her. Conway was lying near them.
Ludlow entered the room and he and Conway slapped her bare bottom. Conway said “Man, give me a turn” as he fiddled with his bottoms.
Leppard then stopped having sex saying: “No way. She is asleep innit. ------- a girl that’s asleep innit, that’s technical rape.”
They all left her naked and face down on the bed. Leppard’s friends later described him as “a legend”.
Catherine Farrelly, for Leppard, said the teenager was very immature when the offence was committed.
“He is from a very good, decent, hard-working family,” she said. “He has a history of self-harm. He doesn’t seek to use it to his advantage.”
Miss Farrelly added she entirely accepted the victim was vulnerable.
Judge Statman said the victim’s friend started to film what was happening because she thought it would be a bit of a laugh.
“But in the course of that which occurred thereafter she realised this was no laughing matter,” he said.
“Having watched the video I am sure that when filming commenced on the second occasion she was unconscious. She was comatose through drink.”
The judge said of Leppard’s filmed comment at the end of the rape that it was “technically rape” if a girl was asleep: “I make it absolutely clear there is nothing technical about it at all - this is rape.”
Leppard had unprotected sex with the girl and did not enquire whether she was on the pill.
“It seems to me over and above all this one has a victim here who would never have known about that sexual act perpetrated upon her but for the fact it is later she is told by her friend she had been the subject of filming.
“I am satisfied this is a case where you had a deep-seated streak of arrogance that materially affects the way you react towards women and this needs to be addressed and focussed upon in the future.
“The impact on her of not knowing you had sex with her, according to her victim personal statement, understandably caused her great distress.
“I make it absolutely clear there is nothing technical about it at all - this is rape" - Judge Philip Statman
“It resulted in her having to go for doctor’s appointments. As she rightly says in her statement in her state of unconsciousness and not knowing what happened to her she could have woken up three months thereafter to find herself pregnant and not knowing who the father of the child was.
“Thankfully, that is not the case. You took advantage of her vulnerability.”
Judge Statman said the filming was not instigated by Leppard but formed a valuable part of the prosecution case.
“At the age of 19 you know what the rules are in regard to sexual conduct without any doubt whatsoever.
“Regrettably, from start to finish you have shown absolutely no remorse for that which you have done.”
Leppard’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and he will be barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.
A restraining order was made banning him from contacting the victim.
A jury acquitted Leppard of one charge of rape at a previous trial but could not reach a verdict on a second rape charge.
A retrial was ordered and he was convicted by the second jury.
More by this author
Keith Hunt