57-year-old jailed for raping 13-year-old boy after he came out as gay
(Photo: Devon and Cornwall Police)
A 57-year-old man who raped a 13-year-old boy shortly after he came out has been jailed.
Robert Kinsella was sentenced to eight years in prison after grooming and raping the 13-year-old who was in the area for a gay pride event.
Kinsella had originally met the boy in a pub while he was with older family members, Somerset County Gazette reported.
The 57-year-old later raped the boy after they met again at a party elsewhere in the town.
Exeter Crown Court heard during the four-day trial that after leaving the party together to purchase more alcohol, Kinsella groomed him into going back to his house.
(Pexels)
The unnamed boy told the court that the 57-year-old then raped him on his bed.
The pair later returned to the party, where the 13-year-old reportedly went to bed only to have Kinsella follow and attempt to join him.
Related: Coronation Street features male rape storyline
Other guests of the party were alarmed by this behaviour, with one guest reportedly getting in the bed between the pair to protect the boy.
(Photo: Exeter Crown Court)
Prosecutor Virginia Cornwall told the jury that the 13-year-old told Kinsella to stop and that he was embarrassed by the incident.
She said: “It was a painful experience for the boy, who was scared and told him to stop.
“Kinsella asked the boy if it turned him on. The boy had never had sex before and was a virgin.
“He kept it to himself at first. He felt ashamed and embarrassed and did not want anyone to know.”
The boy had recently told his friends that he was gay, and he was visiting to attend Exeter’s Gay Pride event the next day.
(KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Kinsella denied the charges of rape and stated that no sexual activity had occurred, but was found guilty by the jury.
Judge Erik Salomonsen said that Kinsella had groomed the boy, used alcohol to impair his judgement and that his actions would have a lasting effect on his victim.
The 13-year-old did not originally report the incident, which prosecutor Cornwall said was caused by feelings of shame.
However, the boy reported it to police a few months later after he turned 14 and Kinsella began to contact him again.
Stock image of man (Pexels)
In March, a man in the US faced life imprisonment after ordering his girlfriend to rape his 11-year-old autistic son because he thought he was gay.
After Sean Cole, 29, discovered his eleven-year-old son in a “compromising position” with another boy, he told his 20-year-old girlfriend Khadeijah Moore to perform sex acts on his son when he visited his home on Thanksgiving in 2016.
