A WILMSLOW man has been found guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl.

Jake O’Neill was convicted on eight charges, including rape, attempted rape, child abduction, grooming, and four counts of penetrating a child, by a jury at Chester Crown Court on Friday, January 5.

O’Neill admits having sex with the girl on December 6 and 7, 2021, who arrived at his home wearing her school uniform, but claimed he believed she was 16.  

The 33-year-old began grooming the teen in an online chatroom in October 2021, before moving onto Snapchat, where messages are automatically deleted.

The victim says he sent many sexual messages, and she told him she was only 14.

She claims she blocked him when the sex messages became too much, but he still managed to contact her through an alternative online profile before they reconciled when he told her he wanted to be her boyfriend.

Then on December 6, 2021, he paid for a 65-mile taxi ride for her from Wolverhampton to his home in Dairybrook Grove, Wilmslow.

Her family had no idea she was going, and after she didn’t show up for school, her mum called the police.  

After O’Neill had unprotected sex with the girl several times on December 6, he tried and failed to smash her phone, so threw it into a nearby river.

The police were still able to use phone data to trace the missing girl to Cheshire.

The victim slept at O’Neill’s house, then on December 7, he performed a sex act on her which she didn’t consent to.

It was this act which led to the rape and attempted rape charges.

In the afternoon of December 7, O’Neill left the girl unattended while he went to Tesco.

When he returned, police were at the house, and he was arrested.

In an interview at the Middlewich custody suite on December 8, O’Neill said he had no memory of the act, but later said it 'may have happened accidentally’.

His claim he thought the girl was 16 was undermined when prosecutor, John Philpotts, showed the jury phone messages sent by O’Neill to an unknown person just hours before the victim arrived at his house.

The messages included claims he was having sex with an underage girl.

O’Neill was remanded in custody following the verdict.

He will return to Chester Crown Court for sentencing on Friday, February 9.