February 2019

Rapist jailed for over ten years for string of sexual assaults against a young girl

A rapist who subjected a young girl to a string of sex attacks more than 20 years ago has been put behind bars.

Andrew Smith, 45, has been jailed for ten-and-a-half years for the historic assaults which included rape when the victim was a teen.

She was brave enough to come forward to police in 2017 to report the abuse she had suffered more than two decades ago.

Specialist officers from Northumbria Police’s Safeguarding Department led an investigation into Smith, who started his offending when he was under the age of 16.

The rape was carried out when he was in his 20s.

He was charged in February 2018 with one count of rape and seven indecent assaults. 

Smith, of General Havelock Road, Sunderland, denied the charges but was found guilty of all eight offences at Newcastle Crown Court in November.

On Friday, a judge handed down a ten-and-a-half year jail sentence.