November 2010 Essex rapist jailed for 17 years A RAPIST branded a danger to young girls has been jailed for 17 years. Andrew Roberts started preying on a teenager when she was 13 and the ordeal lasted over three years. Prosecutors said she was raped in hotels in Colchester and Clacton and subjected to sexual activity in a field near Wivenhoe and a chicken farm in Great Bentley. Roberts, 36, of no fixed address, but who lived near the victim in Harwich who had denied there had been any sexual contact, looked shocked as Judge Rodger Hayward Smith QC sentenced him. A jury at Chelmsford Crown Court had convicted him on a series of rape and sexual activity charges after a 19-day trial. Judge Hayward Smith said it had been an “extremely serious” course of conduct, and added: “You are a danger to young girls.” The girl was 13 when she first met Roberts when he moved near her home in the Harwich area. The relationship was perfectly proper to begin with but the court heard how Roberts took advantage of the girl and carried out a series of sex assaults on her. Lynne Shirley, prosecuting, said: “She was completely taken in by him and sucked into a web of deceit. “He abused her in the most callous way.” Roberts denied a total of 15 charges of rape and sexual activity involving the girl, who is now aged 18. He was cleared on two rape charges but convicted of two alternative charges of sexual activity and convicted on another rape and 12 sexual activity charges. Matters came to light at the end of 2008 when the girl told a friend what Roberts had been doing to her. He denied all her claims and said nothing sexual had taken place between them. Det Sgt Jules Cole said: “We welcome this sentence as it reflects the seriousness of the crime. This case sends a strong message that we will vigorously investigate rape offences in a determined bid to bring offenders to justice.”