November 2016 Man jailed for rape of six year old girl A man who sexually abused a young Quedgeley girl when he was 17-years-old has been jailed for just three years at Gloucester Crown Court. Christopher Rouen, 22, of Dumbarton Road in Stockport sexually assaulted the girl, the court was told. He also admitted penetrating the girl’s mouth and touching her sexually. Rouen, who has ten convictions for ‘flashing’ offences of indecent exposure, was aged 17 at the time he abused the girl between June and September 2011, the court heard. Judge Jamie Tabor QC said the normal sentence starting point for an adult who committed such offences on such a young girl would be eight years. But he halved that because of Rouen’s age at the time and then deducted a further year to take account of his guilty pleas, he said. Prosecutor Brendan Moorhouse said: “The girl was extremely grateful that the defendant spared her the ordeal of having to give evidence to a jury.” He said the offences came to light when the girl told a family member what Rouen had done to her. “She kept it secret for a long time,” the prosecutor said. “The defendant was interviewed on December 24 last year and denied the offences. He did refer to the difficulties he’d had with a cannabis habit.” In a victim impact statement, the girl said that at the time of the offences she was so young she did not know what to feel about it. She now feels wary about boys and is scared they might suddenly kiss her, she stated. It takes her a long time to feel she can trust someone. “I don’t feel I can trust any man apart from my grandfather,” she stated. She had mixed feelings about Rouen – mad that he had confessed his crime to the court but not to her, she said. “I think he should go to jail as a punishment but I think he needs some support so he doesn’t do it again,” she added. Judge Tabor told Rouen: “What you did was wicked. It has had an effect on your victim since that time. It has obviously been something very much on her mind while she has been growing up. “I have tried to strike a balance between the young man you were then and you are now but I have come to the conclusion, I’m afraid, that you must go away to prison. I don’t say that lightly or with any pleasure at all.”