• Michael McQueenie, 28, raped the vulnerable girl near local primary school
  He had been drinking for three hours and messaging women online for sex
  He lured girl, 14, who has learning difficulties, into bushes but was spotted
  Just 15 minutes after the rape he continued to message women online
  He initially denied raping the girl but was caught out in an identity parade
  A court heard that McQueenie has a ‘poor attitude towards women’
  He has 37 prior offences on his record including assaulting his partner
  McQueenie has now been jailed for 11 years and seven months for the rape

Michael McQueenie (pictured) has been jailed for more than 11 years for raping the 14-year-old girl, who has learning difficulties and is partially blind

A rapist wearing a hi-vis jacket who attacked a 14-year old partially blind girl after he failed to find sex on Skype and WhatsApp has been jailed for more than 11 years.

Michael McQueenie, 28, from Blackburn, Lancashire, had been drinking for three hours after leaving work at a waste recycling plant and was ‘sexually frustrated’ after repeatedly trying and failing to arrange to have sex with women over the internet.

Eventually McQueenie, who was still dressed in his work high visibility jacket, targeted the teenager after he spotted her sitting on a wall near a primary school.

He lured her into bushes before ordering her to strip and raping her.

The victim was found when her father, who had gone out looking for her, spotted her and McQueenie emerging from the bushes.

McQueenie fled but was later arrested as the immediate run-up to the attack had been caught on CCTV.

A court heard he resumed his online trawl for sex just 15 minutes after the rape.

The court heard the girl has a ‘multitude of learning difficulties,’ and had no concept of stranger danger and had been ‘inherently trusting of people.’

Her teacher said: ‘Anybody could ask her to do anything and she would do it.’

The court heard McQueenie’s actions ‘destroyed’ the girl’s loving, devoted and protective family and had left a ‘permanent and deep scar in their lives’.

In a statement read out in court, her father said: ‘The attack has altered our lives forever and we are completely and utterly devastated.

‘I feel this has destroyed me and my family.’

McQueenie admitted rape and sexual assault at Burnley Crown Court and was locked up for 11 years and seven months.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely and was issued with a Sexual Offences Prevention order, banning him from having unsupervised contact with any female under the age of 16 and from living in the same household as any female under 16.

Joseph Allman, prosecuting, told the court the incident occurred on June 5 last year, after the girl had a chance encounter with McQueenie.

An eyewitness had been looking out onto the park when he saw the teenager being lured into some bushes by a stranger and went out to intervene.

The man came across the girl’s father, who was already looking for her.

They both went into the nearby park and saw the teenager and McQueenie, but he fled when the girl’s father chased after him.

Initially the girl said the stranger had just touched her.

She later told police she had met a ‘naughty man’ who told her to kiss him and take her clothes off before she was made to perform a sex act on him.

Police later established several people had seen the victim sitting on a low wall with a stranger at 8.24pm, shortly before she was seen on the playing field.

The stranger on the wall was described as similar to the man the girl’s father had chased and eyewitnesses said he had been wearing a hi vis jacket and had been drinking beer.

CCTV captured McQueenie going in to a local shop to buy beer in his hi viz jacket.

McQueenie was arrested on June 11 but claimed that after leaving work he had gone home, had a lot to drink and had not gone out again.

Mr Allman said: ‘Significantly, he adamantly denied he was wearing a yellow hi-vis jacket that day and maintained he had never been issued with that kind of jacket.’

He was re-interviewed when officers received statements from several people who had seen McQueenie sat on the wall.

He maintained he wasn’t the attacker but was later picked out by a witness during an identification parade.

He maintained he wasn’t the attacker but was later picked out by a witness during an identification parade.

Police then spoke to his workmates, supervisor and project co-ordinator.

Mr Allman told the court: ‘They readily established he did have a yellow hi vis jacket and in fact was issued with it that day.

‘They also established his jacket had disappeared by the following morning by the time he arrived at work. It has never been found.’

‘The defendant insisted it wasn’t him and ultimately tried to point the finger in the direction of what he described as “Asian gangs” hanging around in the area.’

McQueenie’s mobile phone and the laptop he shared with his mother were seized.

When officers analysed the phone and computer, they found he had made extensive use of two messaging functions, Skype and WhatsApp.

Mr Allman said: ‘In the early hours of the morning of the day the victim was raped, he sent really vast amounts of sexually themed messages to a wide range of women who were apparently strangers, or at most online acquaintances.

‘He had at least 10 specific sexual conversations, trying to meet for sex or have a webcam session and all of these exchanges ended in frustration.

‘About 15 minutes after the girl was raped, he resumed contact and carried on contacting numerous women to make small talk, but also to talk about sex.’

McQueenie has 37 previous offences on his record dating back to 2004.

At the time of the rape he was subject to a domestic violence suspended prison sentence for assaulting his partner as she held a baby.

The court heard the probation service found him to have a ‘poor attitude towards women.’

In mitigation defence counsel Kenneth Hind said : ‘The only major mitigation is that he has pleaded guilty.

‘He is facing up to the reality of the offences themselves.

‘This was an opportunist offence. It was committed within, what must be fair to say, a small window of opportunity.

‘It’s a terrible offence in itself, but it’s a one-off situation.

‘There’s no history or anything that would indicate that it’s likely to occur again, significantly.

‘There’s certainly a lack of maturity on his part, certainly in dealing with women.

‘There’s no doubt that there will follow a very substantial prison sentence and of course he knows that that will be the outcome.’

Passing sentence Judge Jacqueline Beech told McQueenie: ‘You lack remorse and any insight into the consequences of your offending on others.

‘It would have been immediately obvious to you that she was very vulnerable and that’s no doubt why you led her into the park and did what you did to her.

‘It’s clear at the time you were sexually frustrated as you had been seeking instant gratification over social media. ‘

‘Your offending has destroyed everything the victim’s family had been working for.

‘You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself. This is a long sentence and rightly so.’

Daily Mail