This is North Devon -- A rapist has been jailed for ten years after his victim used her mobile phone to record him asking her to sleep with him. Andrew Johnstone forced the girl to have sex with him when she was just 13, after taking her back to the farm where he lived near Ilfracombe. She was so traumatised by her ordeal that she kept it secret for three years until she was 16 and he contacted her again to try to start a sexual relationship. Johnstone, 44, was found guilty after a jury at Exeter Crown Court was played a recording she made in which he asked her to spend the night with her. The victim was in council care at the time and finally summoned the courage to tell her care worker what Johnstone had done to her in the past. Johnstone is a convicted fraudster who went to prison for an £80,000 swindle shortly after raping the girl in 2009 and it was only when he was released that he tried to seduce her. He denied any sexual activity had ever taken place and his barrister claimed the victim's teenaged hormones had led her to invent her story. Johnstone, of Sampson's Plantation, Fremington, Barnstaple, denied rape and three counts of sexual activity with a child but was found guilty and jailed for ten years. As he was led away from the dock he shouted "Injustice" at the judge. Recorder Mr Martin Meeke told him: "You are a fraudster from way back but these are completely different matters. You have been convicted on the plainest evidence of raping this 13-year-old girl. An aggravating feature is the damage that you have done to her. Her victim impact statement is poignant. It says the biggest effect is that it made her unable to trust anyone or tell anyone about what you did until she was 16." During a four-day trial the jury heard how Johnstone was working at a chip stall where the girl helped out briefly. He attacked her after taking her back to the bungalow at a farm at High View, West Down, where he was living at the time and which was empty because his wife was at work. She did not report it at the time and only did so after recording him three years later asking her to sleep with him. It gave her the confidence to think she would be believed. The victim said after Johnstone came out of prison he started making advances towards her by sending her presents and she feared he wanted to start a sexual relationship because she had just turned 16 and it would be legal. She said she guessed from texts sent by Johnstone that he was about to make a more overt sexual advance and so she used her phone to record the conversation in which he asked her to spend the night with him as he drove her to a nail appointment. Johnstone told the jury no sexual activity had taken place and the recording was taken out of context and did not mean what the girl said it did. His defence counsel told the jury that the girl had been emotionally troubled at the time she made the allegations. After his conviction Miss Louise Sweet, defending, said: "The offences all took place over just four days. There were no threats, no force, and no weapons used. He has no similar convictions."
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This is North Devon -- A rapist has been jailed for ten years after his victim used her mobile phone to record him asking her to sleep with him. Andrew Johnstone forced the girl to have sex with him when she was just 13, after taking her back to the farm where he lived near Ilfracombe. She was so traumatised by her ordeal that she kept it secret for three years until she was 16 and he contacted her again to try to start a sexual relationship. Johnstone, 44, was found guilty after a jury at Exeter Crown Court was played a recording she made in which he asked her to spend the night with her. The victim was in council care at the time and finally summoned the courage to tell her care worker what Johnstone had done to her in the past. Johnstone is a convicted fraudster who went to prison for an £80,000 swindle shortly after raping the girl in 2009 and it was only when he was released that he tried to seduce her. He denied any sexual activity had ever taken place and his barrister claimed the victim's teenaged hormones had led her to invent her story. Johnstone, of Sampson's Plantation, Fremington, Barnstaple, denied rape and three counts of sexual activity with a child but was found guilty and jailed for ten years. As he was led away from the dock he shouted "Injustice" at the judge. Recorder Mr Martin Meeke told him: "You are a fraudster from way back but these are completely different matters. You have been convicted on the plainest evidence of raping this 13-year-old girl. An aggravating feature is the damage that you have done to her. Her victim impact statement is poignant. It says the biggest effect is that it made her unable to trust anyone or tell anyone about what you did until she was 16." During a four-day trial the jury heard how Johnstone was working at a chip stall where the girl helped out briefly. He attacked her after taking her back to the bungalow at a farm at High View, West Down, where he was living at the time and which was empty because his wife was at work. She did not report it at the time and only did so after recording him three years later asking her to sleep with him. It gave her the confidence to think she would be believed. The victim said after Johnstone came out of prison he started making advances towards her by sending her presents and she feared he wanted to start a sexual relationship because she had just turned 16 and it would be legal. She said she guessed from texts sent by Johnstone that he was about to make a more overt sexual advance and so she used her phone to record the conversation in which he asked her to spend the night with him as he drove her to a nail appointment. Johnstone told the jury no sexual activity had taken place and the recording was taken out of context and did not mean what the girl said it did. His defence counsel told the jury that the girl had been emotionally troubled at the time she made the allegations. After his conviction Miss Louise Sweet, defending, said: "The offences all took place over just four days. There were no threats, no force, and no weapons used. He has no similar convictions."
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