Latest Offenders Southsea

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A FAILED Blind Date contestant jailed for having sex with a schoolgirl after giving her cannabis has been convicted of raping another after also giving her the drug. Johnny Law, pictured, was jailed for a year in 2002 after picking up the 15-year-old outside a Bicester school, giving her cannabis and then having sex with her. He was initially charged with rape but it was dropped and he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex. Now Law who was an unsuccessful contestant on Blind Date ten years ago has again been convicted of rape. Law, formerly of Iffley Road, Oxford, picked up the 15-year-old in his van, gave her cannabis before attacking her in a field in Waterlooville, Portsmouth, months after moving to Hampshire, Portsmouth Crown Court heard. His latest victim gave video interviews to tell how Law asked for directions and gave her cannabis before leading her to the field off Stakes Hill Road, where he carried out his attack. He fled back to Oxfordshire, but was quickly arrested. Law initially told officers they would not find any DNA evidence. But when forensic tests on the girl's clothing showed traces of Law's DNA he changed his story, claiming the girl wanted to have sex with him. A jury at Portsmouth Crown Court took just four hours to reject Law's explanation. He had previously admitted supplying cannabis to the girl. Dressed in a grey suit, Law showed little emotion as the foreman returned the guilty verdict. But as he left court he shouted: "I am going to kill myself. I'd rather be dead than in prison." Outside court, the girl's distraught mother said: "To know that he has done something like this before makes me feel sick. Maybe if he had been dealt with properly my daughter would not have had to have gone through this." Law claimed to be a part-time singer when he appeared with Cilla Black on ITV's matchmaking programme Blind Date. He was one of three contestants trying to be picked. He tried to impress the studio audience and the girl by singing a Buddy Holly song. But his would-be date was not impressed and picked another contestant. Audiences at the time did not know Law had already been accused of rape after a woman claimed she was attacked in his van a year earlier. In 1995, Law was acquitted of rape after picking up a woman at the end of Cornmarket Street and had sex with her in a road in North Oxford. He told the jury the woman had consented to sex, but ran away after he told her about his girlfriend and baby. Law, now of Green Road, Southsea, will be sentenced at Isle of Wight Crown Court next month. When he was jailed at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Paul Clark said the pre-sentence report revealed an attitude of blaming everybody but himself. He added the maximum sentence for unlawful sexual intercourse was two years. He put Law on the sex offenders' register for ten years.