A man has been sent to prison for more than five-and-a-half years for sexually offending against a teenage girl in Crawley. At Lewes Crown Court on Monday 28 September Morakile Kosi, 33, unemployed, of Barn Field Terrace, Bexhill, pleaded guilty to a count of sexual activity with a girl aged 14. He was sentenced to 67 months imprisonment, will be a registered sex offender indefinitely, and was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order severely restricting his access to girls under 16 until further court order. Kosi pleaded not guilty to raping the girl and that charge was ordered to lay on the court file. Detective Constable Helen Rainbow of the West Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit said; “Kosi came to know the vulnerable young girl through mutual acquaintances and deliberately arranged a situation in which she was at his mercy, purely for his own gratification. The victim showed real strength and maturity in bringing this to the attention of the police, and I hope that this encourages others who have found themselves in a similar situation to come forward. Sussex Police will always take these matters seriously. Grooming young people is particularly heinous because it preys on their vulnerabilities – but grooming is not consent.” See the Sussex Police website for information on support and advice available to victims of sexual offences. Anyone with information about sexual offending can also contact the police at any time online or by calling 101, and arrange to speak to experienced investigators.
