DANIEL BIRD OF SALE JAILED FOR RAPE OF BOY HE BABYSAT IN MANCHESTER

In August 2012, Daniel Bird, a 24-year-old man from Northenden Road, Sale, was sentenced to four years in prison for multiple counts of rape against a young boy he had babysat. Bird, a hairdresser by profession, had repeatedly assaulted his victim when the boy was only eight years old, believing he had escaped justice.

The offender's conviction followed a courageous revelation by the victim, who, inspired by a storyline in the television soap Coronation Street, found the strength to disclose his abuse after watching a plot involving the character Carla Connor, who was raped by her ex-fiancé and later supported throughout her court case.

He told his parents about the abuse, which led to a trial at Manchester Crown Court. During the proceedings, Bird maintained his innocence, but the jury found him guilty of four counts of rape. Despite the gravity of his crimes, Bird received a relatively lighter sentence, partly because he was a minor at the time of the offences.

The court was told that Bird groomed the young boy using Pokémon trading cards to facilitate the assaults. The victim lived in fear of further attacks, especially since Bird had told him not to tell anyone about what happened.

Bird continues to deny the charges. However, Judge Michael Henshell, addressing the case, accepted the probation officer’s report that described the offences as ‘sexual experimentation’ while Bird was ‘coming to terms’ with his own sexuality.

Neil Usher, defending Bird, remarked that this explanation provided some ‘understandable context’ for his client’s actions, and noted that since the offences, Bird had not reoffended and had matured into a responsible and hard-working individual. He suggested that the victim’s family might find it difficult to accept this change.

During sentencing, Judge Henshell highlighted the impact on the victim, stating: “It was clear, in the course of the victim’s evidence, that he couldn’t bring himself to tell anybody near the time for a number of reasons, one of them being that you told him not to tell anybody, you spoke to him in a manner which made it clear he was not to speak of it.

“Offences such as this, which cause pain at the time, and embarrassment at the time, are difficult to gauge when it comes to assessing harm done psychologically to the victim. He was only eight, a very young boy at the time, and has carried the effect of these offences with him for all these years until he gave evidence in court, when his distress was only too plain to see.”