Former limousine driver jailed for 24 years for manipulating and sexually abusing teenagers – The Irish News

A former limousine driver who used his stretch Hummer to manipulate and sexually abuse teenage girls in Rotherham has been sentenced to 24 years in prison.

David Saynor, 77, gave his victims alcohol after taking them for rides in his company limousines, before raping or abusing them, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

According to the NCA, the girls, who were aged between 12 and 18, were sometimes picked up from their schools or care homes in his long-distance Hummer. Saynor actively encouraged them to call him if they needed to be picked up somewhere, often telling them to bring their friends.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that at one point the defendant took a girl, aged 12 or 13, to his limousine storage facility where he raped her in an office building.

Another teenager was repeatedly abused when she was 14 and 15. She was picked up in her school uniform along with a group of other girls and given alcohol, cigarettes and money.

The NCA said Saynor, formerly of Rotherham and now living in Mayall Court, Lincoln, raped the girl in the back seat of the limo and threatened to harm her family if she told anyone.

Saynor, who committed offences in the late 2000s and early 2010s, was arrested as part of the NCA’s Operation Stovewood, the UK’s largest investigation into child abuse, after he was identified by several victims.

According to the agency, he was found guilty in July on 15 charges related to eight victims.

Stuart Cobb, chief investigator at the NCA, said: “Saynor targeted vulnerable girls who are still living with the consequences of his abuse as adults.

“The victims showed extraordinary courage in reporting what Saynor did, and I am pleased that we were able to get justice for them.

“I hope Saynor’s capture will bring some peace to the victims.”

Operation Stovewood was set up in response to the Jay Report, which sent shockwaves through the country in 2014 when it emerged that at least 1,400 girls in the city had been abused, trafficked and manipulated by gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani origin, between 1997 and 2013.

Last autumn the NCA insisted that “this does not mean we are going to stop”, when it announced that from January new allegations would be dealt with by South Yorkshire Police rather than Operation Stovewood.

The agency said it was “confident that we have done all we realistically can to identify individuals who may have been victims”, and said it had identified more than 1,100 children involved in the exploitation between 1997 and 2013 – almost all of them girls.

The agency said it is committed to continuing the current investigations until the end of the criminal process, which is expected to last until 2027.

A total of 36 people have been convicted so far as a result of the operation.

According to the NCA, Operation Stovewood is the largest law enforcement operation of its kind ever undertaken in the UK, with more than 200 personnel at its peak.

Previous estimates put the cost of Operation Stovewood at around £90 million.