Woman jailed for life for rape and sexual abuse of a young girl

A woman who instigated and organised the rape and sexual abuse of a young girl with two men has been jailed for life.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Vicki Bevan, 37, Paul Rafferty, 62 and Tony Hutton, 42,  were all involved in the systematic abuse of a girl under 10 years of age over a two-year period from 2019 until 2021.

Overwhelming images of the abuse, which included rape, were found on Ms Bevan’s phone. Bevan, Rafferty and Hutton all live in St Helens and pleaded guilty to several sexual offences in January 2022.

Images of the abuse were shared between the three but Ms Bevan also shared them more widely on the platform Kik Messenger.

The images and WhatsApp and Kik messages between Bevan, Rafferty and Hutton revealed a level of depravity that shocked the CPS team that worked on the case.

Bevan instigated conversations between the three about the sexual abuse,  rape and torture of the child. Bevan was asked by one of the men at one point if she had any boundaries and she answered, “No, none at all…”

The three shared images of Bevan abusing the child on her own but the men also took part in the abuse in person.

The abuse came to light when a fourth man was arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. His phone was examined and the images of the abuse carried out by Bevan were found.

A video was also recovered by the police showing Bevan sexually abusing the child.

She was arrested on 25 October 2021, Rafferty was arrested on 3 November 2021 and Hutton on 4 November.

Rafferty and Hutton admitted that they were the men seen in the images of the abuse but claimed Bevan was the key instigator.

Ms Bevan claimed that a lot of the talk of what she would do to children was fantasy and that she would never act it out. She claimed to be sorry for what she had done to the young girl.

Neither Bevan nor Hutton had any previous convictions at all, Rafferty had some but none related to child sexual abuse.

Today (Friday 13 May 2022) at Liverpool Crown Court, Vicki Bevan was jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 10 years and 44 days before she can be considered for release.

Paul Rafferty was jailed for 10 years and further four on extended licence. Tony Hutton was jailed for four years, two to be served in prison and two years on licence.

Judge Andrew Menary said the scale of depravity in the case "beggars belief".  He said the defendants had used the young girl as a "sex toy" and that it was likely she would suffer "severe psychological harm" as a result of what had been done to her.

The Crown Prosecution Service successfully applied to the Court for a restraining order to prevent any of the defendants having any contact with the victim.

The CPS also successfully applied for an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order to be imposed on all three defendants, that prevents them having any unsupervised contact of any kind with a child. They also cannot use a computer or access the internet without informing the police.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Pauline Newrick, a specialist prosecutor with CPS Mersey-Cheshire Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) unit, said: “This is one of the worst cases I have been involved in, in my time at the Crown Prosecution Service. There are certain cases that are difficult to get out of your waking thoughts.

"This is a woman who has gone out of her way to satisfy her own sexual needs and those of men she communicates with online by abusing a young girl. She has assisted men to rape and sexually abuse this child and has also sexually abused her for her own personal pleasure.

“If she had not been caught, no doubt she would have continued arranging for this young girl and potentially others to be abused by herself and men in the most horrendous way.

“She has not confined herself to the actual abuse - she has encouraged others to participate.”

Pauline added: “This is the world that a CPS RASSO prosecutor lives in, in their daily work, and it is not easy to deal with cases like this, day in and day out.

“We do it because we care and because we want to achieve justice for the victims who are subjected to the brutality and depravity of the offenders.

“An innocent child is at the heart of this case – a child who was dragged into the depraved and sordid world of these three people who could have tried to protect her.

“That child is now receiving the care and support she has a right to expect. We hope this successful conclusion of this case helps her in the long journey ahead.”