R v Rasseika Duncan

Facts

The appellant, then aged 37, encountered the complainant, referred to as B, at a bus station in Hyde at about eight or nine o'clock on the evening of 1 October 2022, where she was socialising with friends. He was on his way home from his son's fifth birthday party. He asked B about local bars and clubs; her evidence was that she told him she did not know of any and that she was only 15. The two then travelled by two buses to the appellant's flat, a multiple occupancy property in Stalybridge, the appellant buying cannabis on the way. At the flat B became uneasy and messaged her brother and a friend for help; her brother suggested she break a window or kick in the door, which she did not do. The appellant smoked cannabis, put on a television dating programme and tried to kiss her. After sexual activity of which he was later acquitted, he penetrated her vagina wearing a condom despite her saying she did not consent and was menstruating, and made her masturbate him. Police, alerted by the messages, attended and arrested him. Following trial at the Crown Court at Manchester he was convicted of rape contrary to section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity contrary to section 10 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and was sentenced by Mr Recorder O'Donohoe to 11 years' imprisonment in total. He appealed against sentence with the leave of the single judge.