Jack Westlake – Plymouth

A young man has been jailed for a series of rapes and sexual assaults on four girls, which resulted in one of his victims having to seek an abortion.

Jack Westlake, of California Gardens, Plymouth, faced trial at Plymouth Crown Court over a total of eight charges involving four girls, who were all aged under 16 at the time.

Westlake, now aged 21, was accused of raping one girl aged under 16 on August 26, 2021, and a further sexual assault by penetration on the same girl on the same day.

Westlake was also accused of raping a different girl aged under 16 on August 26, 2022.

He was also charged with two counts of assault by penetration on another girl aged under 16 on January 26, 2021, at a play park in Plymouth.

Westlake was also charged with four counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child, another girl aged under 16.

One incident occurred between August 1, 2021, and October 1, 2021.

Another incident took place between November 1, 2021, and November 18, 2021, with a third incident on November 18, 2021, and again on the same day. All four incidents happened in the Devonport area.

Following the trial at Plymouth Crown Court, a jury returned guilty verdicts on all eight charges.

Judge Matthew Turner told Westlake at a sentencing hearing today that although he was under 21 himself at the time of the offences, he noted that he targeted young and vulnerable girls, often first communicating with them on social media before then arranging to meet them in isolated locations where he raped and sexually assaulted them.

He told Westlake that his offending had left the girls impacted upon their schooling and emotionally “for years to come”.

Judge Turner highlighted that when Westlake was 17, he raped a 14-year-old girl, which resulted in her falling pregnant.

The jury had heard that, as a result, the girl had to seek a termination.

The court heard in her victim impact statement how she had lost the trust of her family, she felt it difficult to trust others, had struggled with eating and her behaviour deteriorated at school.

Judge Turner said the impact of having a termination at such a young age was “considerable”.

He noted that Westlake’s offending had breached a two-year Sexual Risk Order he was made subject to in November 2023 by the Magistrates’ court, which prevented him from contacting or communicating with any female under the age of 16 and demanded he alert his supervisor to any new mobile phone he took possession of.

Judge Turner said that each girl was particularly vulnerable due to their youth.

Judge Turner said that while he did consider that Westlake was dangerous under the provisions of the Sentencing Act, in that he did pose a significant risk to members of the public of causing serious harm by the commission of further specified offences, he felt that it did not require an extended sentence, but would be handed a “lengthy determinate sentence”.

He said he considered this due to the way Westlake had befriended each of the girls on social media, how he had sought out girls who were younger than him, pressurised them and lured them to isolated locations where he sexually assaulted them, ignored their pleas for him to stop and engineered a “degree of control” over them.

Judge Turner also noted how Westlake had even carried out some of the offences even while on police and court bail, and while he was subject to a court order aimed at preventing his sexual offending.

Taking into account all the aggravating and mitigating factors, Judge Turner handed Westlake a total sentence of nine years.

He said Westlake would remain on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely and must pay a victim surcharge of £190