TWO teenagers have been jailed for six years for raping a girl they first met on the internet.

Jean-Claude Rugero, 19, and Prince Afriyie, 17, were jailed after being found guilty of raping a 17-year-old girl on St Botolph’s roundabout in Colchester.

Sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday, Judge David Turner QC said the incident highlighted the dangers of online networking, popularised by sites such as Facebook and Myspace.

He said the pair had been in contact with the victim over two years, but they had never met.

He said: “If ever a case demonstrated the potential risks inherent in so-called internet friendship, it is this one.

“Free from the boundaries and judgements more safely established in full face-to-face relationships, disinhibited by the relative anonymity of the net and impersonal usernames, I’m satisfied that there was a pattern of flirtatious banter on the internet and by mobile phone for some time between you.

“That had included, I recognise, you both receiving sensual photography from the victim.

“She was, as I think she could recognise, unwise to say the least to send those.”

Sentencing both to six years in prison, Judge Turner said the girl had given no “green light” for sex to occur.

He added: “This was crude, quick, opportunistic, non-consensual sex in public with a drunken young girl by two of you, one after the other, with others standing nearby and in the vicinity.

“I believe you both came to Colchester with at least the prospect of sex on your minds.

“This was a young girl you had never actually met. She says, and I’m prepared to accept, that she’s not the same person she was before those events.”

During the two-week trial, the defence claimed the victim had consensual sex with both defendants in August last year after getting to know them on social networking websites and on the phone.

Afriyie said the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was “up for it” on the night of the attack, after they had travelled from their homes to meet up with her.

The victim admitted she had been drinking to celebrate her birthday and had agreed to meet the pair.

But she later changed her mind and they only met by chance when they drove past as she was walking home alone.

The court heard they then led her through an underpass into the middle of the roundabout, before taking it in turns to rape her, while three of their friends were nearby.

Solicitors mitigating for both men said neither showed remorse because they still did not accept they had raped the girl.

Christine Agnew, representing Afriyie, added: “This was a one-off offence committed by an immature young man who, on the spur of the moment, allowed his overbearing, at that stage, sexual, instincts to get the better of him.”

Rugero, 19, of Kesteven Close, Ilford, and Afriyie, 17, of North Close, Chigwell, were both ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.