‘Depraved’ stretch limo driver who raped and abused UK schoolgirls jailed

16 August 2024 , 07:14

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David Saynor’s stretch limousine. He particularly targeted girls who lived in children’s homes. Photograph: NCA/SWNS

David Saynor, who picked up girls from school and gave them alcohol and cigarettes, jailed for 24 years

A “depraved” rapist who used a stretch limousine to abuse schoolgirls as young as 12 has been jailed for 24 years.

David Saynor, 77, who lived in Rotherham, groomed a number of girls in the 2000s and early 2010s, picking them up from school and plying them with alcohol and cigarettes. 

He particularly targeted girls who lived in children’s homes and preyed on the most vulnerable, giving them money or threatening them to keep them silent.

During a five-week trial, Sheffield crown court heard how Saynor would encourage the children to undress or dance for him, and would go on to rape or sexually assault them. One woman, who was 14 at the time Saynor began to abuse her over a period of two years, said he had threatened to hurt her family if she told them he had raped her.

Another victim, who was 16 and in care at the time, was initially given a job by Saynor handing out leaflets for his limousine company. On one occasion she was driven to an area of Sheffield she did not know and told to perform a sexual act on him or be left there, miles from home and with no means of getting back.

Judge David Dixon told him: “Not all were abused, and it seems to me that you not only selected them to fulfil your particular desires, but due to their lack of parental influence or support to assist them in stopping what you were doing.”

The women said they were still traumatised by the abuse and had been robbed of their childhood, with one victim saying she felt as if she had been given a “life sentence”.

Another victim, who told the court she still suffered from nightmares, said: “Dave ruined my childhood and I feel like he’s ruined my adult life too.”

She added: “I don’t know who I am any more.”

In July, Saynor was found guilty of 15 charges, which included two counts of rape and two counts of paying for the sexual services of a child, alongside a number of counts of assault by penetration, sexual activity with a child and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

He would probably die in prison, he was told, as he had to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence behind bars. Dixon told him: “You will remain in custody until 2040 – if you last that long.”

Sam Thompson, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “The way David Saynor groomed, threatened and coerced young girls in the community for his own depraved sexual desires was both cruel and manipulative.

“We are thankful to the victims in this case who came forward to tell the court what happened to them at the hands of Saynor.”

Elizabeth Baker