Man who raped girl, 16, in Ilford’s Valentines Park jailed for five years

A rapist who attacked a 16-year-old girl in broad daylight in an Ilford park has been jailed for five years today.

Antroy Ford, 22, was introduced to the victim by a friend after he said he wanted to meet an “innocent church going girl”.

After texting and emailing the “naive” teenager, he persuaded her to meet him in Romford to go to a music festival in Victoria Park, London with some of his friends on September 10, 2011.

But after repeatedly trying to kiss her on the bus to Valentines Park, Cranbrook Road, Ilford, he led her to a secluded part of the park and forced her to have sex with him.

“You persisted in trying to get what you wanted out of that day, which was a sexual encounter with her,” judge Recorder Richard Merz said.

“You stopped at one spot and you kissed her.

“She wasn’t responding and you asked her if she had kissed anyone before.

“She said she had not, and you laughed at her and told her to relax.

“It is clear to me you were engineering the situation so you could get her to a place where no one could see what was happening.”

He then ordered her to carry out sexual acts on him, before forcing himself on her despite her protests.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard she tried to kill herself when she returned home by taking an overdose of paracetamol.

“I note that she has gone from being a happy, sociable girl who was working hard at school and hoped to go to university, to someone who is withdrawn, and finds it hard to focus on her studies,” said the judge.

Ford, of McDermott Close, Battersea – who remained impassive in the dock – was found guilty of rape after a trial last month.