AN EX-Leeds United player has been jailed for 17 years after raping a 17-year-old girl and taking pictures on his phone.
Stephen Scholes, 55, of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court yesterday after a “depraved” attack on the teenager.
The “arrogant” former footballer was found guilty of four counts of rape of a woman aged 16 or over and four counts of assault by penetration.
All eight sex offences took place in the early hours of January 25, 2020, a court heard.
Scholes told cops he used to play for Leeds United in the 1980s.
Living in Tenerife at the time, Scholes was staying at a property in Leeds when he took the victim out and “plied her with alcohol”.
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The teen became “very intoxicated” and “felt sick and disorientated” before sick Scholes took her back home and “told her that the night was not yet over”.
He then climbed into bed with the victim and began taking her clothes off and touching her inappropriately.
Despite struggling and “shouting for him to stop”, Scholes went on to rape the teen in a sick attack.
The now registered sex offender took pictures on his phone as he was raping the victim, a court heard.
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After the first attack, Scholes put the victim in another room and later returned before raping her a second time.
The brave victim gave three interviews to cops the next day during which she said that she had been left “ashamed”.
After a forensic investigation, Scholes’s semen was found on the shaken victim, who was in pain for days after the attack.
‘ARROGANT’
DS Craig Stevens said that after he arrested Scholes, the defendant noticed that he was wearing a Leeds United lanyard and told him he used to play for the club decades ago.
He said: “He made a big play of it. The sentence is brilliant and reflects how bad the offence was.
“He was so arrogant. He thought he was never going to be found guilty.
“It’s been a long, hard road for the victim. I can’t emphasise enough how brave she’s been since that depraved attack.
“She’s fronted him up in court and did everything I asked of her. He would not have got that sentence if it wasn’t for her.”
The ex-Leeds star denied the offences and claimed that the victim “forced herself onto him”.
But although Scholes tried to cover his tracks by deleting the images taken from his phone these were later recovered.
Following the sentence, the officer in the case, DS Craig Stevens, said that an impact statement read out by the victim had left cops in the gallery “in tears”.
He said: “I have been a police officer for 20 years and it’s probably the most impactful statement I have ever heard.”
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Prosecutor Robert Stevenson said: “She was aware of what was going on but felt helpless and unresponsive, unable to move due to being under the influence of something.”
Mr Recorder S. Jackson KC sentenced Scholes to 17 years in custody plus three years on an extended licence and placed him on the sex offenders register.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
