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On June 24, 2026, Liverpool Crown Court sentenced Kwame Yeboah, a former British Airways First Officer, to nine years and four months in prison after he pleaded guilty to grooming and raping a 12-year-old girl he met online in late 2025.
Kwame Yeboah is a Ghana-born former British Airways First Officer who had been employed by the airline since 2023 and was based at Heathrow. He is also a former England youth basketball player who spent more than 17 years playing and refereeing at Basketball England
At Liverpool Crown Court on April 22, 2026, Kwame pleaded guilty to three counts of rape of a girl under the age of 13 and one count of sexual assault. Kwame, age 30, first made contact with the child online in late 2025. She initially told him she was 17, and their conversations began ordinarily.
Kwame sent the child intimate images of himself, and the conversations became increasingly sexual.
He called her around twice a week, making her believe she was important to him and that he cared about her. In February 2026, Kwame travelled from Reading to Merseyside to meet the child late in the evening.
He drove her around before taking her to an isolated location, where he raped her three times. The child later told police she struggled to process what was happening and felt nervous and confused.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Thomas Hanlon of CPS Mersey-Cheshire’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences unit 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 a school uniform.
When he met her in person, it would have been obvious that she was a very young child. Despite this, Kwame deliberately took her to an isolated location where he raped her three times.”
“He groomed the victim into believing she was in a relationship with someone who cared about her. In reality, he was an adult man who abused his position and exploited her for his own sexual gratification.”
Judge Gary Woodhall described Kwame as a dangerous predator who exploited his position as an older professional to manipulate the victim. Kwame was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
British Airways confirmed that Yeboah was immediately dismissed once the airline was informed of his crimes. “We’ve been sickened to hear of the despicable actions of this individual. Our thoughts remain with the young person and their family.”
