A TEENAGER who met a girl at a busy train station and raped her in the toilets has been jailed for five years., though his sentence has been reduced by credits for time served on bail ahead of the offence - which was commited in the autumn of 2024.

The conviction follows an investigation led by British Transport Police (BTP) detectives from its Major, Serious and Organised Crime (MSOC) team.

Tommi Harwood, 18, and of Andersons, Stanford-le-Hope, was found guilty of rape following a five-day trial.

On Friday, 9 October at Snaresbrook Crown Court, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. He was also handed an indefinite restraining order and an eight-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

The court heard that on 5 September 2024, Harwood, aged 16 at the time, was messaging the 16-year-old victim on Snapchat and told her his name was "Bobby".

During the conversation it was mentioned that she was on a train, and Harwood asked to meet her at Romford station.

The train pulled into the station at just after 8pm and he met her on the platform.

He then led her into a waiting room and repeatedly asked her to check if anyone was in the women's toilets.

After a short while she went to use the toilet, but Harwood followed and raped her.

They returned to the platform and he told the victim, "If we see police, run across the tracks".

The victim bravely reported what happened to her and met with BTP detectives the following day.

A manhunt was launched to track down Harwood, but initial efforts to locate him were unsuccessful.

That was until BTP officers spotted him at Basildon station on 25 October where he was stopped by rail staff for travelling without a valid ticket.

He was promptly arrested and taken to police custody to be interviewed.

The victim's detailed account twinned with forensic and CCTV evidence resulted in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorising the rape charge. It then took two years to bring him to court for trial and when he was eventually sentenced to five years, 152 days were knocked off for 'time served'.

The reduction echoed a cut in senetence to another Thurrock man, who was jailed for four years last week but walked away a free man because of the 'credits' he had accrued while waiting trial.

BTP Detective Constable Ross McAlpine said: "The young victim has shown tremendous courage, not only by speaking up and reporting what happened to her, but by supporting our enquiries and the court proceedings that followed.

"She has been supported throughout our investigation by specialist officers, and I hope the fact her attacker is now behind bars brings her some sense of justice.

"Harwood's attack was premeditated and frankly abhorrent. Through his actions, he has shown that he poses a very real threat to women and girls.

"Tackling sexual offending is a top priority for us at BTP. I would urge anyone who experiences or witnesses this offending to report it to us by texting 61016 or dialling 999 in an emergency.

"Just as we have in this case, we'll stop at nothing to put dangerous sex offenders before the courts."