British Airways Pilot Kwame Yeboah Jailed 9+ Years for Raping 12-Year-Old Girl He Groomed Online

30-year-old First Officer loses career, reputation after “obvious” abuse of childLIVERPOOL, June 2026 – A British Airways pilot who spent years working toward a respected aviation career has been sentenced to nine years and four months in prison after admitting to raping a 12-year-old girl he groomed on Instagram.

Kwame Yeboah, 30, of Reading, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. The court also imposed a 15-year restraining order.

From cockpit to courtroom
Yeboah had worked for British Airways for three years, serving two years as a First Officer based at Heathrow Airport. He previously boasted about his career on social media. That career ended in April 2026 when he entered guilty pleas.

Grooming and abuse
The court heard Yeboah first contacted the child online in late 2025. She initially told him she was 17, but prosecutors said his victim was “clearly underage by her appearance” and it would have been “obvious” she was a very young child.

He sent X-rated images of himself, and the conversations became increasingly sexual. The Crown Prosecution Service said he called her about twice a week, making her believe she was important to him.

In February 2026, Yeboah drove hundreds of miles from Reading to Merseyside to meet the girl. He drove her around before taking her to an isolated location where he raped her three times. The abuse came to light days later when a friend told the victim’s mother, who contacted police.

When arrested and interviewed, Yeboah answered “no comment” to all questions.

“The uniform means nothing now”
The case has sparked outrage because of the trust placed in pilots and the abuse of that position. Yeboah threw away years of training, a respected job, and his reputation for an act the court described as targeting a child whose age was obvious.

British Airways has not released a public statement on his employment status, but conviction for offences of this nature typically results in immediate dismissal and revocation of aviation licenses. He will now spend the next several years behind bars, his flying career finished.

Context
This is not the first time a BA pilot has faced allegations of child abuse. In 2013, First Officer Simon Wood died before facing trial over alleged abuse during stopovers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. BA said those allegations related to activities “entirely outside the scope of his employment”. The Yeboah case is separate and involved grooming a UK child online