Nottingham rapist plied teenage runaway with drink and drugs before brutal attack

A Nottingham man in his sixties raped a runaway teenage girl so violently that afterwards her “whole body felt numb”. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Winston Virtue’s victim banged head against a radiator while he carried out the sex attack after he plied her with drink and drugs.

In a victim impact statement, the vulnerable young girl told how she feels “broken” by what the 64-year-old subjected her to. And he denied the offence meaning she had to relive her ordeal at his hands at a trial.

Jailing him for 11 years, Judge Mark Watson said: “She was vulnerable and you targeted her because of this. I am perfectly satisfied you knew she was young and however streetwise she presented as, that was a veneer.

“You told her to lock the door and you told her she was pretty and that you wanted to show her love. What you did was quite the opposite. You pinned her down, and told her to be quiet and while you raped her she hit her head on a radiator. She told you it hurt and she told you to stop but you did not. You did not care.

“She said you broke her and left her traumatised and she said she can still feel your touch and the force you used on her. I regard her as particularly vulnerable.”

The trial heard how the rape took place at an address in Nottingham in 2022. Chris Donnellan KC, prosecuting, told the jury that the girl had run away from home and was given drugs and drink by the defendant who then raped her.

The prosecutor said: “In terms of the physicality, she was on the bed and while he raped her she felt her head hitting the radiator. He had pinned her down and held her with his hand on her chest.

“She said afterwards he hurt her so hard that her whole body felt numb and in a victim impact statement she described herself as traumatised at the time and broken by the defendant. She said she did not know why he chose to do what he did when he did it.”

Virtue, of Rushworth Close, St Ann’s, was found guilty of rape following a trial at the same court. He has no previous convictions of any kind. Roger Wilson, his barrister, said: “It is difficult to mitigate following a conviction, but Mr Virtue denies plying her with drink and drugs.

“He moved to the UK from Jamaica in 2000 and has always had a job working as a plasterer in construction and he has lost everything as a result of this. Some might say he deserves it. He is an old man and will come out of prison an old man.”

As well as the jail term, Judge Watson placed the defendant on the sex offender register for life and handed him a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.