SERIAL killer Rose West’s nephew followed in his notorious aunt’s footsteps when he abducted a 12-year-old girl and raped her, a jury decided today.

Steven Letts, 39, of Barton Street, Gloucester, son of Graham Letts - brother of Rose West, snatched the ’troubled’ girl from a city centre street in full view of a support worker from her care home, Gloucester crown court was told.

He took her back to his flat, plied her with vodka and cannabis, and then had intercourse with her. Although she did not resist or say no it was an offence of rape because the law says a child under 13 cannot give consent to sex.

After the jury convicted Letts of abduction and rape at the end of a six-day trial he was remanded in custody to await sentence next Tuesday, November 14.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC said he would not pass sentence immediately because Letts also has to be sentenced for an offence of aggravated burglary of which he was convicted at a trial earlier this year.

At the start of the trial prosecutor Sarah Regan told the court the girl had moved into a Gloucester care home in February this year and staff were made aware she was in the habit of asking older men and other strangers for cigarettes

In evidence, Letts claimed he was acting as a ’good Samaritan’ when he agreed to take the girl home with him. He had been shocked by the way her carer had been speaking to her and he felt he had a ’duty of care’ to look after her, he said.

The jury of six men and six women returned guilty verdicts on both charges of abduction and rape within 90 minutes of retiring today (November 6).

Four security officers flanked Letts in the dock as the verdicts were delivered but he remained calm and composed and showed little reaction.