A Rochdale man has been jailed for 13 years after being found guilty of nine sexual offences, including rape and sexual assault of a child during a more than decade-long campaign of abuse.
Lee Smith aged 46 of Kirkway, Rwas found guilty in July following a trial at Minshull Street Crown Court where he was accused of numerous offences.
The court heard how in 1999, Smith, who had become friends with a relative of the victim, would often visit their house, where he would regularly abuse the young child.
This abuse would sometimes even take place when Smith would enter the boy’s bedroom on the pretence of ‘reading a bedtime story’, at which point he would begin touching him inappropriately. Smith would often make his victim feel that he was obliged to do as he asked.
The young boy was sometimes left in pain following the assaults, and this continued over the next decade, with the abuse occurring when the victim’s mother was out or at Smith’s home.
Such was the level of grooming and abuse, the boy came to think the abuse was normal, with Smith systematically exploiting his trust.
In the months and years that followed as he became an adult, the victim bravely began to open up to friends and family of the abuse, prompting an investigation by police.
In a separate investigation, for which Smith was also guilty of, in November 2024, Smith engaged in a conversation with what he believed to be the profile of a 13-year-old boy.
Officers later traced Smith to his address and arrested him for attempted sexual communications.
Following his trial, which covered the years of abuse and online offence, Smith was finally found guilty of nine offences: two counts of indecent assault, two counts of s9 sexual activity , one count of s10 causing a child to engage in sexual activity, s4 causing sexual activity, sexual assault, rape, and attempted sexual communications.
