Man pleads guilty to rape of a girl in Dorchester

A man has pleaded guilty to the rape of a teenage girl in Dorchester.

Adrian Cordery, 32 and of Dorchester, appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday 29 May 2020 and pleaded guilty to rape. He is due to be sentenced at the same court on Monday 6 July 2020.

The incident occurred at around 9.20pm on Thursday 5 December 2019 in a field at St Osmund’s School in Barnes Way.

The victim, who was aged 15 at the time of the offence, was walking along the field when she was grabbed from behind by Cordery who had a knife exposed in his hand.

Cordery told the victim that if she did not do as she was told she would be hurt. He then proceeded to forcefully drag her onto the field and sexually assault her.

A full investigation was launched into the incident, led by detectives from Dorset Police’s Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT).

Following a medical examination, a male DNA profile was obtained but the profile did not match any stored on the database.

Further work was carried out by detectives, including extensive CCTV enquiries, which led to the discovery of a man matching the description seen on footage in the town centre. Subsequent enquiries revealed that the man in the CCTV footage was Cordery.

The footage also showed that Cordery appeared to be following the victim.

Officers met with Cordery and he consented to giving a voluntary DNA sample. On Monday 10 February 2020 detectives were notified that the DNA sample provided by Cordery was a match to the sample obtained from the medical examination of the victim.

Cordery was arrested on Tuesday 11 February 2020.

Detective Inspector Wayne Seymour, of the MCIT, said: “This was a terrifying sexual assault on a young teenage girl. Incidents such as these are fortunately rare in Dorset and we will always use every resource available to us to investigate and find the offender.

“I would like to praise the victim for her bravery throughout the investigation to help bring Cordery before the courts.

“I hope the guilty plea today will help provide a sense of closure for the victim after she endured such a horrific incident.”