April 2010 Llantwit Fardre man jailed for rape of girl, 11 A man who dragged an 11-year-old girl into bushes and raped her as she walked through a park has been told he could spend the rest of his life in jail. Joseph Rees, 19, of Llantwit Fardre, Rhondda Cynon Taf, threatened to kill the girl while she was on her way to a friend’s house in broad daylight. The attack happened near a library in Llanbradach, Caerphilly, in January. Passing an indeterminate sentence the judge said Rees would only be free when appropriate, adding: “It may be never.” Judge Nicholas Cooke, the Recorder of Cardiff, told Rees he would serve at least six and half years in jail. He also granted a sexual offences prevention order, banning Rees from having contact with under-18s unless in a public place or when accompanied by another adult, and banning him from entering public parks alone. Judge Cooke told Rees: “This is an act of repulsive wickedness. You will only be released when the authorities consider it appropriate – it may be never.” Prosecutor Caroline Rees said on the morning of 4 January the girl set off from home through the park. “She had made that journey very regularly and it was familiar territory to her, territory in which she thought she was safe to walk,” Miss Rees said. Describing a police interview, she said the girl heard rustling in the bushes and turned around to see a man, now known to be Rees, behind her. She tried to walk away, but he dragged her into the bushes out of public view. The girl said she had seen the man riding around on a BMX bike earlier on her journey, Miss Rees said. She told the court the girl kicked and screamed in an effort to resist her attacker, who kept one hand on his victim’s mouth during the ordeal. Rees told her at first that he was a police officer, which the girl did not believe, then said: “I have got a knife in my pocket to kill you.” He said if she told anyone “I will kill you and I won’t stop stabbing you until you die”. A passing dog walker took the girl home when she found her sobbing and trying to dress herself. At home, the prosecutor said: “It was clear that the girl was telling her mother that she had been raped by the stranger, who is in fact the defendant.” ‘Dangerous individual’ Joseph Rees’s foster mother, whom he had been visiting over Christmas, heard about the attack and learned the police were looking for a man in clothes she had seen him wearing. She called police when she found him at home and he was arrested that night. The court heard that Rees had a troubled background and had set fire to his brother’s cot when he was aged just three. Outside court, Det Ch Insp Steve Mogg of Gwent Police described Rees as “a very dangerous individual”. “I would say that he won’t be released from custody until he is declared to be safe,” he added.