Sadistic rapist jailed for attack on schoolgirl (From St Helens Star)

Sadistic rapist Carl Wheal jailed for brutal attack on schoolgirl

9:37am Thursday 20th September 2012 in News

A SADISTIC teenage rapist has been jailed indefinitely after attacking a terrified schoolgirl in a secluded wood.

Carl Wheal had met his 15-year-old victim and exchanged messages via Facebook a few weeks earlier. On the night in question last March, both were at a party where he was said to have paid her a lot of attention.

However, she didn’t know that earlier he had grabbed another 15-year-old by the throat and threatened to “slice her” if she did not have sex with him. Luckily she managed to escape.

Wheal, who was on bail for false imprisonment and assault, later pretended to be the good Samaritan and offered to walk his victim home, saying she would be safer with him; but in reality he was planning to rape her.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the girl, who was drunk, decided to walk home because she couldn’t find her bus fare. Wheal, 18, walked with her for five minutes, but as they passed the secluded wood in Rainford, he started to make sexual advances towards her.

Teresa Loftus, prosecuting said he tried to kiss her, but when the youngster resisted, he grabbed her hair.

She said: “He dragged her into the wood and slammed her head against a tree, forcing her to the ground before starting a sustained, violent and brutal assault.”

Wheal demanded she take off her top, but when she refused, he ripped her bra open and tried to pull off her skirt.

She attempted to resist by curling up her legs but he punched and kicked her repeatedly to the face before raping her.

He placed his hands over her mouth to stop her screaming and grabbed her mobile phone, smashing it against a tree. Wheal also threatened to kill her by slicing her throat. Claiming to be a London gangster he then started to strangle her.

Miss Loftus continued: “She thought she was going to die but he was interrupted by the sound of voices. That frightened the defendant and the victim took the opportunity to scream for help and he ran away.”

The voices came from a group of youngsters and when Wheal fled, two of the young men chased him.

The young girl ran out of the wood, upset and half naked. One of the group knew her, but her face was so badly swollen, it was hard to recognise her.

Her injuries included tenderness to her cheek, jaw and back of the head.

She also had to return to hospital six days after the attack with headaches and dizziness and was diagnosed with post concussion syndrome.

Police then arrested Wheal at his home on Windermere Drive in Rainford.

During the attack, he had punched the girl on the nose, leaving blood stains on his Ralph Lauren jacket, which was found abandoned in the wood.

Imposing an indeterminate sentence for public protection, with a minimum of three years, Judge Brian Lewis said that the rape was “entirely premeditated” and Wheal presents a very high risk of harm, particularly to young women.

Court heard that Carl Wheal fantasised about violence and treated women as "his sexual playthings".

Judge Lewis stressed that the victim had feared for her life and had he not been interrupted, her fears may have been realised.