A former Leeds United player has been jailed for 17 years after raping a 17-year-old girl and taking photos of the assault with his mobile phone. Stephen Scholes, aged 55, of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, after being "convicted of four counts of rape and four counts of penetrative assault".
The eight sexual crimes took place in the early morning of January 25th, 2020 at a property in Leeds, although he was living and working in Tenerife at the time.
Scholes allegedly "plied the victim with alcohol" until she became "very intoxicated" and "felt sick and disoriented." At that point, he took her into his house and told her that "the night was not over yet", before climbing into bed with the victim and taking her clothes off, and touching her inappropriately.
Despite the young woman struggling and yelling at him to stop, Scholes continued his assault, and took photos with his phone while he was raping her. After the first attack, Scholes put the victim in another room and later returned before raping her a second time.
The brave victim gave three interviews to police in Tenerife the next day during which she said that she had been left “ashamed”.
The now registered sex offender denied the offences and claimed that the victim “forced herself onto him”, even though he tried to delete the images taken on his phone, but they were later recovered. Additionally, after a forensic investigation, Scholes' semen was found on the victim.
'ARROGANT'
DS Craig Stevens said that after he arrested Scholes, the defendant noticed that he was wearing a Leeds United lanyard and told him he used to play for the club decades ago.
He said: “He made a big play of it. The sentence is brilliant and reflects how bad the offence was. He was so arrogant. He thought he was never going to be found guilty. It’s been a long, hard road for the victim. I can’t emphasise enough how brave she’s been since that depraved attack. She’s fronted him up in court and did everything I asked of her. He would not have got that sentence if it wasn’t for her.”
Following the sentence, the officer in the case, DS Stevens, said “I have been a police officer for 20 years and it’s probably the most impactful statement I have ever heard.”
