July 2023 Child rapist sentenced to 20 years in prison A 34-year-old man who subjected a girl to eight years of sexual abuse has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Luke Bradshaw, previously of Northampton, started abusing the girl when she was just nine years old, with the abuse getting progressively worse over time. An investigation was launched by Northamptonshire Police after the girl bravely reported what had been happening to specially-trained officers in the Force’s Child Abuse Investigation Team, and Bradshaw was arrested. Despite initially denying all of the offences, he would go on to plead guilty to possession of indecent images of children and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, taking a further 12 offences to a trial at Northampton Crown Court which started in May 2023. However, after deliberating for approximately five hours, the jury returned guilty verdicts to all of the remaining charges – two counts of child rape, two counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of assaulting a child under 13, two counts of assault by penetration, two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, and two counts of sexual assault. Bradshaw return to the same court this week (July 26) and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was also issued with an extended licence of three years and an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) with strict conditions.