A British Airways pilot who groomed a 12-year-old girl on Instagram before driving hundreds of miles to assault her has been jailed for more than eight years. Kwame Yeboah, a 30-year-old First Officer from Reading, travelled to Wirral, Merseyside, after contacting the victim online. Despite the child initially claiming to be 17, the Crown Prosecution Service stated it would have been entirely obvious to Yeboah that she was a young schoolgirl. He pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault of a child under 13, receiving a sentence of eight years and four months.
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Online grooming and isolated assault
The court heard that Yeboah, who had worked for the airline since 2023, sent the victim intimate photographs as their online conversations became increasingly sexual. He called the child approximately twice a week to manipulate her, successfully convincing her that she was important to him and that they were in a genuine relationship.
Months after their initial digital contact, Yeboah drove from his home in Berkshire to Merseyside to meet the victim in person. After picking her up and driving her around the local area, he took her to an isolated location where he assaulted her three times.
The victim later told Merseyside Police that she deeply struggled to process the reality of what was happening during the ordeal, leaving her feeling intensely nervous and confused. The crimes only came to light days later when the victim confided in a close friend, who subsequently alerted the child’s mother.
Police investigation and sentencing
Merseyside Police used the digital communication details Yeboah had routinely given the girl to swiftly identify and arrest him. When detained and questioned by detectives, the airline pilot maintained a strict stance throughout all of his official interviews, answering “no comment” to all questions.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Thomas Hanlon confirmed that Yeboah would have known early on that the victim was not the age she initially claimed, noting that she spoke about school and sent images of herself in a school uniform.
“When he met her in person, it would have been obvious that she was a very young child,” Hanlon stated after the sentencing. “He groomed the victim into believing she was in a relationship with someone who cared about her. In reality, he was an adult man who abused his position and exploited her for his own sexual gratification.”
Alongside his immediate custodial sentence, the 30-year-old was also handed a strict 15-year restraining order to protect the victim.
