A judge has sentenced Leah Cordice to prison for showing no remorse after she had sex with a 13-year-old schoolboy and gave birth to his baby.
The Nursery worker is reported to have gone out drinking with friends for an evening and then gone into the victim’s room where she seduced him. She reportedly pulled down his trousers and begged him for sex.
In a police interview that was tendered during the trial, the boy recounted how Cordice groomed him by sending him complimentary texts calling him “cute” and giving him money for fish and chips. The abuse started when she started to hug him and kiss him, before pulling down his trousers and asking for sex.
A jury convicted her of one multiple-incident count of sexual activity with a child that took place when she was 17-years-old.
Cordice who is now 20 years old claimed innocence and claimed the boy raped her instead. However, she was found guilty by a jury of having sex with the boy on at least five occasions.
For the one multiple-incident count, Judge Clarke sentenced Cordice to 30 months detention in a Young Offenders’ Institution and said she would be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and would have to sign into the Sex Offenders Register.
Judge Peter Clarke QC, said:
“Cordice asserted that the truth was that she had been raped by the victim on multiple occasions.
“It has understandably been urged on the court that psychiatric examination has found Cordice to be of borderline intellectual ability with an IQ of 70 to 85. I had and have difficulty with that assessment.
“Cordice gave evidence. She was clear in chief and she was combative and agile in cross-examination. At one stage I had no alternative but to warn her that she was doing herself a disservice in her interaction with prosecution counsel. Suffice it to say she showed no remorse for the events.
“Indeed I heard no indication from either Cordice or the victim that she held him in any particular affection, the evidence from at least one witness was of physical obsession and self-indulgence as opposed to emotional attachment.”
The 13-year-old in a victim impact statement said he was diagnosed with separation anxiety by a psychologist as a result of his baby being taken away by social services.
He told the court:
“I cannot see my child and have not had any involvement with her recently. Seeing my daughter and then having her taken out of my life was very hard to cope with.
“It feels like I was punished for what I have been through. I hope in the future I can move on from this and have a relationship with my daughter.”
Cordice’s lawyer Tara McCarthy disclosed that the accused maintain innocence. She said:
“This is a desperately sad case all around. There are absolutely no winners. The age gap between the victim and Ms Cordice is relatively limited. She is a very immature person, she is still and she certainly was then and it makes the situation difficult. She does accept this has had a significant impact on the victim. It is a situation that nobody really wants to be faced with.”
It is further gathered that one of Cordice’s friends had initially sent an email to the nursery where the accused work to blow the whistle on the affair.
Cordice denied the allegation and described them as malicious. The friend was issued with a harassment warning and a penalty notice for wasting police time, the court heard.
In 2018, the victim’s mother complained to the police and Cordice was arrested at her home in Windsor on July 9, 2018, and she was later interviewed under caution.
She had provided a prepared statement, denying any sexual contact with the boy, and adding:
“He has always had a crush on me and would always make inappropriate remarks and do inappropriate things such as grab me and annoy me.”
She denied that the victim was the father of her child but was forced to take a DNA test which showed, with a probability of 14 million times more likely than not, that the 13-year-old boy was the father.
Cordice had been living with her husband Mr Robbins, an apprentice mechanic who had believed he was the father and had been bringing up the little girl as if she was his own daughter.
21-year-old Robbins who has since separated from Cordice, said:
“There was an argument straight after the DNA test. I was bawling my eyes out. Honestly, if you want to talk about being traumatised, that traumatised me. I had a secure job, I had a nice place, I had a good relationship. I had an amazing life. Everything was going so well and all of a sudden everything got taken away from me: my child, my wife, home, job.”
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