A British Airways pilot, who is Ghanaian by descent, has been jailed for more than eight years after he travelled several hundred miles to meet and rape a 12-year-old girl he had contacted on Instagram.
Kwame Yeboah, 30, first made contact with the child in late 2025. Although the girl initially told him she was 17, prosecutors said his online conversations with her soon became sexual in nature.
Yeboah, a UK national and First Officer with British Airways since 2023, travelled from Reading to Wirral in Merseyside in February to meet her.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was clear from the circumstances that the victim was a child.
The CPS stated: “Kwame Yeboah would have known early on in his contact with this child that she was not the age she initially claimed to be. She spoke about school and sent images of herself in school uniform. When he met her in person, it would have been obvious that she was a very young child.”
Court proceedings heard that after establishing contact, Yeboah sent intimate images and maintained regular phone calls with the girl, about twice a week, during which he made her believe she was in a caring relationship.
Prosecutors said he later met the child in person, drove her around and took her to a secluded location, where the offences were carried out. The victim later told police she felt confused, frightened and struggled to process what had happened.
The abuse came to light after the girl confided in a friend, who informed her mother. The matter was then reported to Merseyside Police, who identified Yeboah using information he had provided to the child.
When officers arrested Yeboah, he declined to answer questions during interview.
He later pleaded guilty to three counts of rape of a girl under 13 and one count of sexual assault of a girl under 13 on 22 April.
He was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison and handed a 15-year restraining order.
Prosecutors said the case involved grooming carried out over several weeks, during which the victim was manipulated into believing she was in a relationship with an adult who cared for her.
Thomas Hanlon, senior crown prosecutor, said Yeboah’s conduct showed he would have been aware of the victim’s age from early in their contact, pointing to references she made about school and images she shared in uniform.
He added that when the pair met in person, the reality of her age would have been clear, describing the case as one of exploitation for sexual gratification carried out by an adult who abused the trust of a child.
Following the revelations, British Airways confirmed that Yeboah was immediately dismissed after the airline was made aware of the offences, condemning his actions as “despicable” and saying its thoughts remain with the victim and her family.
