March 2012

Man jailed for the rape of five girls under age of eight

THE adopted son of a foster carer has been jailed indefinitely after he raped vulnerable children.

Paul Stuart Rhodes, 25, raped five girls aged between three and eight in the East Riding.

One of his victims was a foster child.

Rhode’s adoptive mother was a foster carer for Hull City Council for almost 30 years and has now been banned.

Hull City Council has conducted an internal investigation and taken steps to more rigorously monitor its carers.

The city’s Safeguarding Children Board has ordered the council to produce a report into the lessons it has learnt.

Rhodes pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to 14 counts of rape.

The Honorary Recorder of Hull and the East Riding, Judge Michael Mettyear, sentenced him to imprisonment for public protection.

Rhodes will not be considered for parole for four years.

He will only be released when the Parole Board deems he no longer poses a risk to the public.

The judge said: “He does pose a significant risk to members of the public.

“I bear in mind the type of offences and high level of depravity involved, the number of children involved and the circumstances which brought him to have the opportunity to do it.”

Rhodes was previously sentenced to ten years in prison for raping four girls. The offending came to light when one girl went to the police in February 2010 and officers then became aware of further victims.

Following this sentence, a foster child came forward and told detectives she had also been raped, leading to Rhodes being resentenced.

Detective Constable Rachel Walton, of Humberside Police’s public protection unit, said: “There is no doubt he is a danger. All the victims have been very brave in coming forward.

“Following the first complaint, we conducted further investigations and more victims came to light.

“If anyone else has been affected by Rhodes then we will continue to investigate.”

Rhodes had lured some children to his room under the guise of playing computer games .

On his arrest, he said: “I don’t know why I did it, the opportunity was there.

“I betrayed their trust.”

Paul Dyson, independent chair of the Hull Safeguarding Children Board, said: “Where, in exceptional cases such as this, a child suffers significant harm, it is the responsibility of the board to ensure lessons have been learnt and professional practice further improved.

“At the time of Paul Rhodes’ convictions, he was no longer living within the household and was never a registered foster carer.

“Nevertheless, action was taken to ensure children no longer remained in the foster placement and the household was de-registered.

“The council also implemented additional measures at that time to strengthen the monitoring of foster care.”