Two brothers who raped vulnerable girls 18 years ago have been convicted following a National Crime Agency investigation.
Mark Evans, 36, and Robert Evans, 40, intimidated girls and plied them with drugs and alcohol before luring them to locations where they attacked them, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
The brothers were arrested in August 2020 after officers from the NCAโs Operation Stovewood investigated allegations made by three victims. Specially-trained NCA officers spoke with the women after identifying they were potentially victims.
Two of the women subsequently told specialist investigators they were raped by both brothers.
One of them was 13 at the time. She was given alcohol by Mark Evans before she and some friends accompanied him to a disused barn. He then separated her from her friends and raped her.The same woman was attacked by Robert Evans several months later, when he lured the girl to a house by lying that one of her friends would be there.
Robert Evans plied her with alcohol as they took a bus to the house. Once Evans had the victim alone at the house, he raped her. She recalled he seemed amused by this.
Another woman related how she too was raped by both brothers when she was 14. She knew the men because they spent time with other girls her age.She recounted how Mark Evans walked her home one evening because it was dark, but as they passed through an alleyway he raped her.
She and the first victim were later lured by Robert Evans to a house, on a separate occasion to when the first victim was attacked by him. At the house, Robert Evans forced the second girl into a bathroom and raped her.
The third victim was age 13 when Mark Evans began grooming her by giving her alcohol and drugs, and calling her his โgirlfriendโ. The victim told officers how Mark Evans visited her at her home and asked her for sex. Fearing Evans would dump her, the girl complied with his request, and he took her into an alleyway where he had sex with her.
The men denied the offences when NCA investigators arrested them however, following a two-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court, the brothers were today [4 December] found guilty of rape. Mark Evans was also found guilty of sexual activity with a child and assault by penetration.
NCA Senior Investigator Kim Boreham said:ย โOur investigation uncovered the extent to which the Evans brothers used manipulation to lure young girls away from safety, into places where they were at the menโs mercy.โThe victims bravely described how the brothers abused them in the worst ways, showing no remorse afterwards.
โIt was extremely difficult for the victims to re-live the abuse but with their courageous testimonies we were able to investigate the brothersโ crimes and ensure they faced justice.โ
While the men were awaiting trial, officers from Operation Stovewood also arrested and charged their sister Ann Marie Evans, 29, of Barnsley, under the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act, after ascertaining she had published social media posts identifying two of the victims.
All victims of sexual offences are by law granted automatic life-long anonymity.
Ann Marie Evans was convicted and sentenced in 2023.
The Evans brothers are due to be sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on 16 January.
