January 2017 Serial child abuser jailed for raping Exeter schoolgirl A serial child abuser has been jailed for wrecking the life of a girl who he raped when she was just 15. Jeremy Hicks already had convictions for sexual assault and exposure when he met the girl in Exeter in 1994 and went on to rape her at her parents’ farmhouse. He told his victim he was excited by having sex with her while she was saying no. He was jailed for 15 years after being tracked down to his current home in France and arrested as he stepped off a Eurostar train in London. Hicks, aged 54, has convictions dating back to the 1980s and has been jailed at least twice since these offences for sexual offences in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He met the girl in Exeter when he was 32 and she was 15 and raped her on the first night they spent together alone at her parents home Hicks, whose last address in Britain was Westmoreland Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, denied two counts of rape and five other sexual assaults but was convicted by a jury at Exeter Crown Court last month. He was jailed for 15 years by Judge Geoffrey Mercer, QC, who also ordered him to sign onto the sex offenders’ register for life and made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which bans any contact with children after his release. He told him:”Your victim was just 15 when you approached her in Exeter and she was confused, impressionable and vulnerable. You knew her age full well. “You struck up a relationship with her and she became infatuated with you, or as she put it, obsessed. You saw her as nothing more than a sexual opportunity. “You engaged in a sexual relationship which was in part consensual but on two or three occasions it was not, starting with the first occasion at her family home in Devon. “That sexual relationship involved criminal offences by you, firstly because of her age, which you knew, but more seriously by subjecting her to sexual acts to which she did not consent. “The first rape was on the first occasion you had sex with her at her family home. You imposed yourself on her when she was not consenting and was not ready to. She simply submitted. “The second rape occurred in 1995 and you full well she said no. You persisted when she screamed and cried. You told her you were excited by her saying no. “What you did caused huge damage. I have read her victim impact statement and it is clear you have done untold damage. You have a substantial criminal record which perhaps helps one to understand the man. “Your record includes sexual offences committed before and after this offence.” Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said the victim had made an impact statement which showed the rapes had a devastating impact on her life. He said Hicks has already been assessed as a dangerous offender when he was jailed for a sexual assault in Newcastle in 2005. He has subsequently been jailed again for breaching a sexual offences prevention order by loitering near a seven-year-old girl at Newcastle Central station in 2012. Mr Lee Bremridge, defending, said these offences took place in the context of a generally consensual relationship and included many other occasions where consensual sex took place. At the trial Hicks denied knowing the girl’s age and said all sexual activity had been consensual. She said he used her infatuation to dominate and control her. June 2008 Sex offender broke order by going near children SEX pest Jeremy Hicks is today back behind bars for flouting a court order keeping him away from children. The 45-year-old had been jailed in 2005 for performing a sex act near a young girl on Whitley Bay beach. He was also given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order forbidding him from loitering within 20 metres of children. But an off-duty policeman spotted Hicks standing with a “fixed” gaze at a seven-year-old girl in Newcastle’s Central Station. When he was searched he was carrying a bottle of amylnitrate, commonly used as a sex stimulant, the city’s Crown Court heard. Hicks was found guilty by magistrates of breaching his SOPO as well as possessing a small amount of cannabis found in his hostel room. He has now been jailed for two years. Judge Michael Cartlidge said: “From the age of 16 the defendant has a terrible record. “It seems to me he is going to have to come to terms with the fact he will carry on offending unless he volunteers for some help.” The SOPO will continue until January 2010, the court heard. Hicks, from Westmorland Road, Newcastle, has a string of convictions including indecent exposure, indecent assault on a female, gross indecency with a child, and failing to notify police of a change of address. He had been released from his latest prison term for only a fortnight before his arrest. The off-duty officer had seen Hicks staggering and gesturing with a can of beer on Grainger Street. He followed him into the station where Hicks began to stare at a young girl holding a woman’s hand only four to five metres away, said Susan Hurst, prosecuting. Hicks claimed he had only been trying to find a toilet, the court heard. “He now realises he needs some assistance,” said Mark Guiliani, defending.