10 Mar 2026
A TERRIFIED schoolgirl woke up to find a stranger raping her while using his hand to cover her mouth, a court heard.
The 14-year-old had passed out from taking alcohol and cannabis at a property in Birmingham after being lured there from the city centre by Rhyce Longstaff and his friend.
The court heard how vile Longstaff, 31, went looking for the girl in a bedroom after she lost consciousness before repeatedly sexually attacking her.
When she woke up in terror, Longstaff put his hand over her mouth to muffle the sound of her crying, Birmingham Crown Court was told.
The girl is so traumatised by flashbacks she has since tried to take her own life, jurors heard.
Longstaff was found guilty of three charges of rape after a trial, and he was jailed for 16 years with an extended six-year licence.
Cowardly Longstaff has previous convictions including robbery, affray and threatening someone with a knife.
The hearing was told how Longstaff was with a friend in Birmingham city centre in the early hours of October 11, 2024 when he came across the girl and two of her friends.
He quickly invited them back to an address in Aston, the court heard.
The girl then drank alcohol and smoked cannabis, albeit it was not Longstaff who gave it to her, before passing 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 then passed out again.
Longstaff returned to the bedroom and raped her on two further occasions.
He then left the house and took her phone with him to prevent her calling for help.
It was co-located with his own phone on two occasions in the hours that followed although the victim’s device was never recovered.
In a heartbreaking statement, the girl described how she had lost confidence, self-esteem and no longer recognised herself.
She spoke of being too frightened to go out as well as suffering “terrible nightmares”.
After Longstaff was arrested and convicted, she said it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
She said: “I was fine for a bit but then I felt low again because what happened just won’t leave my head.”
The brave victim concluded saying she was determined the attack would not “ruin my life”.
Longstaff attended via video link from HMP Birmingham and was seen to repeatedly hold his head in his hand throughout the hearing.
Justin Hugheston-Roberts, defending, asked the judge to step back from a possible life sentence and to pass a punishment that was as lenient as possible in line with his public duty.
Judge Smith told him: “I identify no mitigation of note in your favour. In particular, you have demonstrated no remorse.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/38460555/girl-woke-to-stranger-sex-attack-muffle-cries