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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Tristan Kirk

Serial rapist dubbed 'Brixton R Kelly' jailed for campaign of rapes against schoolgirls

A teenage serial rapist dubbed the “Brixton R Kelly” who carried out a three-year campaign of attacks against six schoolgirls has been jailed for 12 years.

Kevarnie Queen, now 19, was dubbed “evil” and a “demon” after forcing the girls into sex despite them screaming in pain and pleading with him to stop.

He was just 15-years-old when he began the attacks, grooming victims over SnapChat before raping them in his south London family home or in a dank stairwell nearby.

Queen throttled some of the girls, pinned them down, and clamped his hand over their mouths so that his mother in the bedroom next door would not hear the screams.

In one incident, he was interrupted by his younger brother as he raped a girl against a set of bunkbeds in his bedroom, and continued the attack when his brother left the room.

When accused of rape, Queen insisted the sex was consensual and dubbed himself “100 per cent player”. He was convicted of 22 counts of rape by a jury, and at Inner London crown court on Monday Queen was jailed for 12 years with an extra four years on licence when he is released.

Queen, who wore blue surgical gloves for the sentencing hearing with a red cross hung around his neck, started crying as the jail term was revealed.  

Judge Usha Karu, the Recorder of Southwark, said Queen was driven by a sense of “entitlement to sex”, and told him: “You have shown no remorse.”

“You are a confident young man who appears to continue to hold the same views in respect of sex and entitlement to it which you did at the time of the offences”, she said.

“There is a significant risk of physical and psychological harm to the public, in particular females.”

The court heard Queen was formerly a promising footballer, but left the game after a ban, dropped out of school, and fell in with gangs. He had an interest in weapons which he boasted about on social media, the judge said. Five of his six rape victims were just 15-years-old, and one told the court she has attempted to kill herself seven times in the aftermath of being attacked by Queen. He was branded the “Brixton R Kelly” after his crimes came to light in 2022,as the court heard Queen used body-shaming, mind games, and emotional abuse tostop the girls going to police, the court heard.

Queen, now 19, was convicted at trial of 22 charges of rapecarried out between May 2019 and May 2022, when he was aged 15 to 18-years-old.One of the victims said she was locked in Queen’s home and told she “wasn’tleaving until she had sex with him”, the court heard.

Another girl was raped on her 15th birthday whenQueen promised to take her for ice cream but took her to his home instead.

“You offered her alcohol, she didn’t accept, and youproceeded to kiss her, forcing yourself upon her against the ladder of the bunkbed in your bedroom which you shared with your brother”, said the judge.

“When she screamed, you covered her mouth with your hand incase your mother heard her.”

Another of the girls said she “frozen” when attacked byQueen, telling the court: “I just felt like my soul left my body when it began.”

Victims, including some who had believed they were in a relationship with Queen, came forward and he was charged in 2022 with multiple counts of rape. Statements from all six victims were read to the court,revealing how they were left feeling suicidal, emotionally traumatised, unableto leave the house, and distrusting of men. Some of the victims wept in court as their words were read aloud, sitting justfeet away from Queen.

One told the court how friends of Queentied to intimidate her into staying silent by vandalising her mother’s garden,leaving her “living in constant fear”.

“Kevarnie knew how to manipulate me, heknew words could trigger emotions, and he knew exactly what to tell me and howto play mind games with me”, she said. “I went out looking for love, and endedup meeting Kevarnie. He told me he loved me but he doesn’t know what love is.”

She added in her statement: “Kevarnie wasin competition with his friends to see who could get the most girls, theprettiest girls.”

The Crown Prosecution Service said Queentried to characterised himself as a “player”, insisting all the girls had sexconsensually and were now lying about being raped as part of a “hate campaign”.

Another victim who was 15 when she wasraped said she had attempted suicide three times.

“Every time I see a child, I pray theywon’t have to come across a demon like you”, she said, of the ongoing mentaltrauma she is enduring.

One of the girls detailed how Queen hadused “body shaming” to control her, causing lasting damage to her self esteem.

“When I look at myself in the mirror, I seea damaged soul”, she said. “He had ill intentions from the start, I trusted himand he betrayed me.”

She told the court she was raped in astairwell opposite Queen’s home, despite wanting to lose her virginity onlyafter marriage.

“I will never be able to live purely again.I will never be able to trust anyone again, I will never get my innocenceback”, she said. "It is something I will have to live with for the rest ofmy life.”

One of the victims said Queen’s abuse has“scarred me forever” and suggested that there were more then six victims ofQueen’s sexual abuse.

“I hope this brings justice to those youngfemales you raped who didn’t come forward”, she said.

One of the girls said her picture wasposted on Snapchat after Queen was reported to police, leading to death threatsonline.

“I was then feeling unsafe to even leavethe house to go to school and live my life the way I wanted to”, she said.

Queen’s last victim called him “evil”, andtold the court: “He is not sorry for what he has done, he is only sorry he gotcaught.”

Addressing the final part of her statementto Queen, she said: “You tried to break me, but in the process, in the log run,you only broke yourself and this has made me stronger and wiser.

“Thank you for temporarily breaking my heart but forever fixing my vision.”

Queen, who used his street tag “K1” onSnapchat as he contacted victims, has been assessed by medical experts, whofound evidence of narcissism and a histrionic personality disorder. His barrister Laurie-Anne Power KC said Queen has been stabbed twice inprison after details of his crimes were revealed, and he was put on 24-hour isolationby jail bosses.

She said Queen was "looselyaffiliated" with gangs around Brixton, but had not been actively involved. 

The judge said Queen “had a chance oftraining for professional football but lost it after an incident during aCharlton game”, when he received an 18-month ban.

“You spent time away from school andfootball, and started smoking cannabis.”

She added a probation officer had foundQueen to have “limited awareness of consent and what it entails”, and dubbedhim “predatory”.

Queen, of Barrington Road in Brixton,denied but was convicted of 22 counts of rape. He must spent at least eightyears in prison before being considered for release.

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