A former Olympic swimmer has been found guilty of raping two teenage girls who were 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 16 and inciting the other to send him sexually explicit photographs when she was under 16 .
Plymouth Crown Court heard James, who represented Britain at the 2012 London Olympics, was a friendly and often charming man, but the prosecutor said he was also “a serial liar and manipulator”.
He was found not guilty of two image-related offenses and of controlling behavior towards a third woman who was over 18 years old.
‘Trusted him’
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on six charges of other sexual offenses and the prosecutor has been given a week to consider whether to request a new trial on the outstanding charges.
The court heard that at the time of his arrest in January 2022 he was training as a police officer with Devon and Cornwall Police. He is no longer an employee of the force.
It was said the offenses took place over a ten-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 I didn’t seem interested in the same things he was interested in. , he wouldn’t think I was mature enough.”
The court heard that his manipulation of this victim went so deep that when he was reported to the police, she told them he was “a good man” and that she did not want him to go to prison. According to the prosecutor, she did not voluntarily agree to any act.
The judge told him he could expect a “substantial prison sentence.”
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