A 30-YEAR-OLD man who sexually abused two young girls has been jailed for 13-and-a-half-years.

Craig Preston was convicted of two counts of rape of a child beween 2011 and December last year.

An Oxford Crown Court jury also found him guilty of six indecent assaults and an attempted rape on another girl when Preston was a teenager between 1998 and 2003.

Preston, of Bulan Road in Oxford, was yesterday sentenced at the court following the 11-day trial in August.

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Prosecutor George Heimler said the older victim had blamed herself for the abuse.

He said: “She never trusted men. She thought because of the abuse it was her fault.

“She was surprised she was believed by people and taken seriously.”

Nadia Chbat, defending Preston, said some of the crimes were committed when her client was a young teenager himself.

She asked the judge not to give Preston an extended sentence, adding: “He’s still 30 years of age and I ask your honour to consider a sentence that will give him some light at the end of the tunnel.”

Judge Zoe Smith, sentencing, said Preston had used Internet video calling service Skype to tell the girl she would get into trouble if she had talked.

Preston was also made to sign the sex offenders’ register and a sexual offences prevention order was made to keep him away from young girls.


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