Overview
- Mrs Justice Ellenbogen set a minimum term of 29½ years at Inner London Crown Court, with sentencing proceeding in Robert Rhodes’s absence.
- A jury convicted Rhodes in December after the Court of Appeal quashed his 2017 acquittal on new and compelling evidence from the child.
- Rhodes was also found guilty of two counts of perjury, perverting the course of justice and child cruelty, with concurrent sentences imposed.
- Prosecutors said he staged a false self‑defence narrative by stabbing himself, cutting the child’s arm and coaching the child using hidden phone messages.
- The judge identified sexual jealousy as the motive, and the child described lasting trauma and scarring in a victim impact statement.