Olympic swimmer found guilty of raping teenagers

Former Olympic swimmer Antony James was found guilty of raping two teenage girls under the age of 18

A former Olympic swimmer has been found guilty of raping two teenage girls who were aged under 18 at the time.

Antony James, 34, from Plymouth, was also found guilty of sexually touching one of the girls when she was under the age of 16, and getting the other to send him sexually explicit pictures when she was under the age of 16.

Plymouth Crown Court heard James, who represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics in London, was a friendly and often charming man, but the prosecution said he was also "a serial liar and manipulator".

He was found not guilty of two image related offences and of controlling behaviour in relation to a third female who was over the age of 18.

'Trusted him'

The jury was unable to reach verdicts in relation to six charges of other sexual offences and the prosecution has been given a week to consider whether to apply for a retrial on the outstanding charges.

The court heard at the time of his arrest in January 2022 he was training to be a police officer with Devon and Cornwall Police - he is no longer an employee of the force.

It was told the offences took place over a 10-year period between 2012 and 2022.

One of the girls told the jury: "I didn’t feel like I could, or should, say no because I really loved him and trusted him… I felt like if I didn’t seem interested in the same things he was interested in, he wouldn’t think I was grown up enough."

The court heard his manipulation of this victim ran so deep that when he was reported to police she told them he was "a good man" and she did not want him to go to prison. The prosecution said she was not freely consenting to any of the acts.

The judge told him to expect a "substantial prison sentence".