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A schoolgirl woke up to the horror of finding herself being raped by a stranger who used his hand to cover her mouth, a court heard. The 14-year-old had passed out from alcohol and cannabis in a property in Aston, Birmingham, after she was lured there from the city centre by Rhyce Longstaff, 31, and his friend.

Longstaff went looking for the girl in a bedroom where she had lost consciousness before repeatedly sexually attacking her, a court was told. The girl awoke to find Longstaff raping her and he put his hand over her mouth to muffle the sound of her crying. The victim was so traumatised by flashbacks that she had tried to take her own life, the court heard.

Longstaff, from Hodge Hill, was found guilty of three charges of rape after a trial. He has previous convictions including robbery, affray and threatening someone with a knife, Birmingham Live reports. He was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for 16 years with an extended six-year licence on Friday, March 6.

Longstaff was with a friend in the city centre in the early hours of October 11, 2024, when he came across the victim and two of her friends. He quickly invited them back to a property on Sutton Street.

Once at the property, the girl drank alcohol and smoked cannabis, though it was not Longstaff who gave it to her. She then passed out in an upstairs bedroom.

Judge Andrew Smith KC told him: "You must have either followed her or gone looking for her and found her in a very vulnerable, unconscious state.

"Her vulnerability was increased by being uncertain as to where she was and being among a number of older male strangers.

"The terror she must have felt to wake and find you raping her cannot be adequately described. Your reaction to her waking was to put a hand across her mouth to silence any response, including her crying, and to tell her not to tell anyone as she would not be believed."

The girl passed out again, and Longstaff returned to the bedroom and raped her on two more occasions, before leaving the house with her phone to prevent her calling for help, the court heard.

The device was co-located with his own phone on two occasions in the hours that followed, though the victim's phone was never recovered.

In a statement, the girl described how in the wake of the sickening attack, she had lost confidence, self-esteem and no longer recognised herself. She spoke of being too scared to go out and experiencing "terrible nightmares".

The victim described in vivid detail how she tried to kill herself because "I could see it as the only way out". She said it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders after Longstaff was arrested and convicted, but it still haunted her.

"I was fine for a bit but then I felt low again because what happened just won't leave my head," she told the court. But the brave teenager said she was determined the attack would not "ruin my life".

Longstaff attended the hearing via video link from HMP Birmingham and was seen repeatedly holding his head in his hand throughout.

Judge Smith told him: "I identify no mitigation of note in your favour. In particular, you have demonstrated no remorse."

Justin Hugheston-Roberts, defending, had nothing positive to say, as per Birmingham Live. He simply asked the judge to step back from a possible life sentence and impose a punishment that was as lenient as possible in line with his public duty.

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