Olympic Swimmer Antony James Sentenced to 21 Years for Rape of Teen Girls

Reporting by James Sutherland contributed to this article:

Olympic swimmer Antony James has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for raping two teenage girls under the age of 18.

James, 35, was also found guilty of sexually touching one of the girls when she was under the age of 16 and getting the other to send him sexually explicit pictures when she was under the age of 16.

He was officially found guilty in October by a jury at Plymouth Crown Court of three counts of rape, three charges of sexual activity with a child, and two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

He had previously pleaded guilty to six counts of making indecent photographs of a child.

The jury could not reach a verdict on one count of sexual activity with a child and five counts of rape. The Crown Prosecution Service has one week to seek retrial on those counts.

James committed the offenses between 2012 and 2022. The court heard that he raped one of the victims in the kitchen of her family home and the other in a car.

As a swimmer, James represented Great Britain on the international stage numerous times, including the 2012 Olympics in London, where he finished 32nd in the men’s 100 butterfly. At the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, he was a semi-finalist in the 50 fly, placing 15th, and also took 19th in the 100 fly.

The Plymouth native was also a two-time medalist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, earning a pair of silvers, and also competed at multiple European Championships and the 2013 World University Games.

James previously was training as a student officer with Devon and Cornwall Police in southwest England. Following his initial arrest in 2022, he was immediately suspended and is no longer an employee of the force.

Judge Robert Linford ruled that two-thirds of James’ sentence would be served in custody, while the remainder would be served on license, with restrictions on his activities. The judge also said that a sexual harm prevention order would be in place for 25 years and that James would be placed on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.

he Court heard that he was a friendly and charming man, but was also a “serial liar and manipulator,” according to The BBC.

One of the girls told the jury: “I didn’t feel like I could, or should, say no because I really loved him and trusted him… I felt like if I didn’t seem interested in the same things he was interested in, he wouldn’t think I was grown up enough.”

The judge, in addressing James, said of the first victim: “You knew what you were doing was seriously wrong but your desire for that young person overtook your self-control.

“She believed that you two were in a relationship.

“It seems that indeed what had been manufactured was a relationship, but then you betrayed that by raping her in her own home.”