March 2012

Net-groom knife rapist is caged for ten years

A SICKO who raped a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint after grooming her online has been caged for ten years.

Stephen Rogers, 22, met the child in an internet chat room, swapped phone numbers with her, then lured her to a secluded park where he raped her.

Twisted Rogers, of Swords, Dublin, pleaded guilty to rape, aggravated sexual assault and producing a knife during the vicious attack on July 16 last.

In a victim impact statement, the girl told how the assault changed her life. She said: “I regularly wake up crying and I keep seeing his face in my head. It has taken so much out of me and my family think there’s something wrong with me because all I do is cry.”

She was bullied at school after the attack and her dad said she’d “lost her innocence”. Garda James Tracey gave evidence Rogers had posed online as a 17-year-old named David.

They had sexy conversations on the net before exchanging numbers and agreeing to meet.

They sat down on a park bench and he began making advances on her but she told him she didn’t want to go any further. Rogers removed his trousers and forced the child to perform sex acts on him.

When she struggled and put up resistance throughout the ordeal, he produced a kitchen knife and threatened her with it, saying: “Don’t panic or else I’ll use it on you.”

Judge Paul Carney sentenced him to five years for producing the knife, to run concurrently to the ten-year sentence. He declared Rogers a sex offender.