Febuary 2007 10 YEARS FOR RAPING SCHOOLBOY A MAN who plied a schoolboy with drugs and alcohol so he could sexually abuse him on a riverbank has been sent to prison for 10 years. Barry O’Keefe, 31, raped the 15-year-old after inviting him on a night fishing trip on the River Caldew at Denton Holme, Carlisle. He was found guilty at the city’s Crown Court last month of rape, but was still refusing to accept his guilt when he appeared to be sentenced yesterday. O’Keefe, who used to live in Stanhope Road but had more recently been staying in Denton Street, was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He was also disqualified from working with children and banned from having unsupervised social contact with boys under 17 – both indefinitely. During the trial last month, the boy told the jury that O’Keefe attacked him after he fell asleep on some rocks on the riverbank after he drank 16 cans of lager and sniffed some ‘Poppers’ from a bottle O’Keefe gave him. Then, he said, O’Keefe climbed on top of him and raped him for 20 minutes. Yesterday the court heard that since the incident, the boy had become withdrawn, bad tempered and badly behaved. He appeared to blame himself for what had happened. Judge Paul Batty QC told O’Keefe the attack was particularly bad because it was clearly premeditated. “You groomed that boy – you befriended him and interested him in a night of fishing and camping,” he said. “It was to be an adventure for him – or so he thought. “But you had serious predatory intentions as far as that child was concerned. You plied him with alcohol – and a lot of alcohol, at that – so he was drunk. “And as if that was not bad enough, you caused him to sniff some Poppers, which you had taken with you with the express intention of stupefying him,” said Judge Batty. “Goodness knows the effect that such a trauma will have upon him now and in the future.” O’Keefe will serve half the sentence before being released on licence. If he then commits any further offences he will be recalled to prison to finish the sentence.