Two men sexually assaulted drunk teenage trio in car's back seat after offering them lift home

Two paedophiles sexually assaulted two teenage girls and a boy in the back seat of their car after offering them a lift home from the pub on Halloween.

Paul McDowall and Alistair Evison were convicted of the sexual attack after picking up the two 15-year-old girls together and a 14-year-old boy outside the Gas Lamp Lounge pub in Louth, Grimsby.

The pair were caged for 14 years each at Lincoln Crown Court on Tuesday (22 August) after pleading not guilty to a series of sexual offences.

The court had heard how the trio had stopped when one of the girls was too drunk to walk and McDowall and Evison were already discussing sex when they met them, before they were offered a lift home.

BBC News reported that prosecutor Michael Cranmer-Brown said the three victims had been drinking and two of them had smoked cannabis when they were attacked.

Cranmer-Brown said that one girl was particularly drunk. He told the court: "Her state of intoxication made her particularly vulnerable. On the face of it she barely knew what was going on around her."

The car was then driven and parked up in a secluded area as Evison began sexually assaulting the boy and one of the girls in the back seat of the car, the jury was told.

During the hour-long ordeal the vehicle stopped twice where the pair carried out a series of sexual attacks.

The jury heard how one of the girls was raped by McDowall while the other two victims were subjected to serious sexual assaults before the teenagers were dropped in Louth town centre.

Evison and McDowall both denied the sexual offences but were both found guilty. McDowall, 41, was found guilty of one charge of rape, two charges of sexual assault and a further charge of engaging in sexual activity with a child. He was cleared of one charge of assault by penetration.

Evison, 43, was found guilty of three charges of assault by penetration, three charges of sexual assault and a further charge of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without their consent. He was cleared of a further charge of assault by penetration.

Judge Simon Hirst, passing sentence, said according to the Grimsby Telegraph: "Both of you were clearly aware these three young people were very vulnerable because of their age and their consumption of alcohol.

"What you did was to take advantage of their vulnerability. This offending by the two of you has had a profound effect on those young people."