April 2018 ‘Sexual predator’ jailed for raping 13-year-old boy A sexual predator has been jailed for raping a 13-year-old boy who had just come out as gay. Robert Kinsella groomed the boy by giving him cigarettes and alcohol and lured him back to his home after plying him with drink at a party. The boy had recently told friends he was gay and was due to go on his first Gay Pride march in Exeter the next day. Kinsella met the boy at a pub in South Molton where he had gone with older members of his family and raped him after they had both been drinking at a party elsewhere in the town. Kinsella, 57, of Park Road, Minehead, denied rape but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court and jailed for eight years by Judge Erik Salomonsen. The judge told him he had groomed the child and used alcohol to facilitate the crime and that his offences will have an untold effect on the victim for the rest of his life. Kinsella has previous convictions for sexual assaults against boys but the jury were not told of them because they all dated back more than 20 years. During a four-day trial the boy told how he was groomed by Kinsella and attacked after leaving a party with him to go and buy more alcohol. They went back to Kinsella’s home in Kingsway, South Molton, where he raped him. They went back to the party where the boy went to bed to avoid Kinsella, only for him to climb into bed with him. Other guests were so worried that one climbed into bed between them to protect the victim, who was a virgin. Virginia Cornwall, prosecuting, said Kinsella himself was disinhibited by alcohol. She said: “It was a painful experience for the boy, who was scared and told him to stop. “He kept it to himself at first. he felt ashamed and embarrassed and did not want anyone to know.” The rape took place in 2015 and the boy travelled with friends to the Exeter Gay Pride march the next day but was not able to tell them what had happened. He made his disclosure to the police after Kinsella started pestering him a few months later, when he was 14. He gave the boy a bottle of vodka and he got so drunk he became ill and police were alerted. Kinsella denied that any sexual activity of any sort had taken place