Nikki Anton Pike’s abuse “contaminated every area” of the victim’s life, the court heard

A rock climbing instructor who raped a young female student after a “sustained period of grooming” has been jailed.

Nikki Anton Pike, 28, met the girl through his work in Milton Keynes and abused her from the age of 12 over a four-year period.

Birmingham Crown Court heard “the effects of the abuse have contaminated every area” of the victim’s life.

Pike, of Great Denham near Bedford, was jailed for 18 years after being convicted of multiple sex offences.

Prosecutor William Saunders told the court Pike had been an instructor at the climbing wall that the girl had first used for training sessions when she was aged 10.

He had been “grooming [the victim] really from day one”.

Mr Saunders said the girl would “tell him everything that she was worried about – he would fix it”.

He called it a “sustained period of grooming resulting in the serious abuse”.

“She felt dependent on the defendant. She worshiped the ground he walked on,” he said.

Pike made the girl perform a sex act on him during a break at climbing, but the court was told the majority of offences took place in his car.

In a victim impact statement read in court, she said: “I was silenced by the power Nikki had.”

She said she had “experienced post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of the abuse”.

Judge Thomas Rochford said he had read a number of character references about the defendant, but said: “What you did over a number of years demonstrates a different side to your character.”

He said there had been a “a significant degree of planning through grooming” and the victim was “seriously and profoundly damaged by what you did to her”.

The judge said Pike “told her you wanted to see a child’s body turn into a woman’s body” and kept photographs as a “record of her developing body”.

‘Horrific offences’

Pike, of Greenkeepers Road, was found guilty by a jury of eight counts of rape and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He pleaded guilty to taking indecent photographs and causing or inciting sexual exploitation of a child.

As well as his jail term, he was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and must sign the sex offenders’ register.

Det Con Miranda Moore, of Thames Valley Police, commended the victim for her bravery in coming forward and said Pike “used his position to gain sexual gratification and destroy a young girl’s life”.

“Pike was in a position of trust and he completely and abhorrently abused this position to commit these horrific offences against a child,” she said.