Ian Naude: Police officer who raped 13-year-old girl jailed for 25 years

Ian Naude, from Market Drayton, was convicted following a trial of the rape and sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl who he met while serving as a student police officer with Cheshire Police.

Liverpool Crown Court heard 30-year-old Naude, who was sentenced for a total of 37 offences, joined the force in April 2017 and was obsessed with taking the virginity of teenage girls who he groomed online.

He first met his rape victim in October last year when he was called to a domestic incident at her home and days later picked her up in his car and raped her in the back seat, filming the assault on his phone.

Sentencing him on Thursday to 25 years in prison with an extended licence period of five years, honorary recorder of Liverpool Judge Clement Goldstone QC said: "In order to impose your will on a young girl, three weeks past her 13th birthday, and to commit offences of rape and sexual assault against her, you used and abused your position as a Cheshire Police officer, thereby enabling you to satisfy your lust and perversion."

Naude, wearing a grey suit and burgundy tie, was ordered to pay attention by the judge as he looked down at a folder of evidence while he was sentenced.

Judge Goldstone said: "Having seen and heard you during the trial, I am wholly persuaded that you do not, even now, have any inkling or appreciation of the extent of your perversion or of the psychological harm and damage you have caused."

He said Naude was "out of control" with an "insatiable appetite" for young girls and described a selfie he took after raping his victim as showing his "smug self satisfaction and total lack of shame".

Naude, who was based at Crewe police station, had denied rape, telling the jury the sex was consensual.

Self-harm

In a statement read to the court, her mother said the victim would no longer leave the house without close family and friends.

She said: "She will no longer walk past the local police station and hides when a police car drives past."

Other parents said their daughters had gone on to self-harm after being groomed online by Naude, who would blackmail and threaten his victims, persuade them to send pictures of themselves undressed, tell them to call him "daddy" and send them videos of himself masturbating.

Naude, who was suspended and dismissed by Cheshire Police following his arrest, was also found guilty by a jury of four charges of attempting to arrange commission of a child sex offence and one charge of arranging commission of a child sex offence.

He pleaded guilty to 30 other offences, including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, making indecent photos of children and misconduct in a public office.

He groomed six girls, aged between 12 and 16, online and admitted using his position as a police officer to find contact details of two other teenage girls.

He also admitted possessing 1,443 indecent images of children, including pictures of girls aged as young as 18 months.

Jake Green

The court heard South African-born Naude would gain the trust of young girls by posing on social media as a 15-year-old boy called Jake Green.

The father-of-one, who previously served in Afghanistan as a machine gunner with the Royal Irish Regiment, was named as a suspect in cases in neighbouring forces before taking up his post in Cheshire Police.

The force said his appointment was delayed from January 2017 to April because he was alleged to have raped a woman in Staffordshire.

No further action was taken in the case and Naude was allowed to join - but reports of child grooming in Staffordshire and West Mercia which named him as a suspect in January and February 2017 were not picked up by Cheshire Police until after his arrest in November that year.

Saul Brody, defending, said there was "very little mitigation" and conceded the defendant was a dangerous offender.

He added: "It's unclear whether he entered the police force specifically to exploit vulnerable victims but he undoubtedly sought opportunities to do so once appointed."