Barman Michael Graham Walks Free After Admitting Sex with Girl, 12

A children's group has hit out after a Leeds man walked free from court despite admitting raping a 12-year-old girl.

Barman Michael Graham, 25, admitted raping the girl after spending the day drinking vodka and beer and smoking cannabis. Leeds Crown Court heard the 12-year-old persuaded Graham she was a mother aged 19 after they met on a social networking website.
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Tink Palmer, director of Stop it Now! UK & Ireland, a campaign group set up to stop child sexual abuse, said she was concerned by the case.

She said: "I am concerned about the message this gives out and I am concerned about the lack of understanding it shows. We need a review of how we cope with such cases and how we can prevent it from happening in the first place.

"This man should have thought this is wrong, this child is at risk. The court was told this man was duped but I think this man has duped the law, he has duped the court."

Graham admitted four counts of rape of a girl under 13 and was given a 12-month conditional discharge following the incident in March at his flat in Ash Road, Headingley.

The court was told the pair had met on a social networking site after the schoolgirl posted a picture and profile of herself. They sent messages to each other before starting to call each other and finally meeting up weeks later.

The girl told her parents she was spending the night at a friend's house. She didn't return home until 5pm the next day, by which time her parents had already rung police to declare her missing.

She later told officers she had packed a condom in her overnight bag and spent the night with Graham having sex. The court heard the girl deliberately tricked Graham into thinking she was older before they had consensual sex.

The judge in the case viewed pictures of the girl in school uniform and a photo of how she had presented herself on the website and said the contrast was "striking". The court was told Graham did not know how old the victim was, had no sexual interest in children and was not a paedophile.

Press Association