A TEENAGER from Chigwell has been jailed for six years for raping a girl he had met on the internet.

Prince Afriyie, 17, of North Close, Chigwell, along with Jean-Claude Rugero, 19, of Kesteven Close, Ilford, were both found guilty of raping the 17-year-old girl on a roundabout in Colchester, last year.

The pair had been in contact with the girl for more than two years on social networking sites Facebook and Bebo, but they had never met her, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

Sentencing the pair, Judge David Turner QC said: “If ever a case demonstrated the potential risks inherent in so-called internet friendship, it is this one.

"Free from the boundaries and judgements more safely established in full face-to-face relationships, disinhibited by the relative anonymity of the net and impersonal user names, I'm satisfied that there was a pattern of flirtatious banter on the internet and by mobile phone for some time between you.

“That had included, I recognise, you both receiving sensual photography from [the victim].

"She was, as I think she could recognise, unwise to say the least to send those."

But, he added, the girl had given no "green light" for sex to occur.

"This was crude, quick, opportunistic, non-consensual sex in public with a drunken young girl by two of you, one after the other, with others standing nearby and in the vicinity," he said.

During the two-week trial, Afriyie claimed that the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ‘up for it’ on the night of the attack after they had travelled from their homes to meet up with her.

The girl said she had been drinking to celebrate her birthday and had agreed to meet the pair. But she later changed her mind and they only met by chance when they drove past as she was walking home alone.

The court heard they then led her through an underpass into the middle of the roundabout before taking it in turns to rape her, while three of their friends were nearby.

Solicitors for both men said, in mitigation, that neither had showed remorse because they still did not accept they had raped the girl.

Christine Agnew, representing Afriyie, added: "This was a one-off offence committed by an immature young man who, on the spur of the moment, allowed his overbearing, at that stage, sexual instincts to get the better of him."

Rugero and Afriyie have both been placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.