Latest Offenders

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A PAEDOPHILE who abused and intimidated young girls over several years will spend at least eight years in prison.

Mark Bradley, 44, formerly of Antrobus Road, Amesbury, was sentenced today at Winchester Crown Court after being found guilty of four counts of rape, two of rape of a child aged 13 to 15 and three charges of cruelty to a child.

He was also found guilty of causing actual bodily harm, four counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.

Bradley denied the abuse, which began when the victims were just seven years old, but was found guilty by a jury sitting at Winchester Crown Court following a four-week trial which started on May 16. Judge John Dixon said the case was “as chilling as it is shocking” and that Bradley's actions had caused “unquestionable and incalculable damage” to his victims.

 
Today Bradley was sentenced to 16 years in prison and told he will serve a minimum of eight years with another two years on licence.

“The catalogue of offences of which the jury convicted you almost beggars belief. You abandoned any humanity you had. You behaved like an animal - a callous and brutal one at that,” said Judge Dixon.

“You do not accept your guilt and you show not a shred of remorse,” he added.

In an outburst as he was sentenced, Bradley shouted: “I have done nothing to be ashamed of.”

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely and a sexual offences prevention order has been put in place.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said: “Mark Bradley is a manipulative and depraved man who intimidated and sexually abused these girls over a period of many years.

“The victims were extremely brave to come forward and report the abuse. Reliving the abuse they suffered must have been very traumatic for them and we hope that the verdict goes some way to help them.

“We encourage anyone who is or has been a victim of sexual abuse to contact us.”

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A PEEPING tom who admitted planting a secret camera at his work to film female colleagues on the toilet is to be supervised by the court for the next 12 months.

Fish factory worker Robert Leask will also have to carry out 66 hours of community service and will be placed on the sex offenders register for one year.

The 50 year old, from Huxter, on the isle of Whalsay, must also pay a 240 fine after he failed to present himself at Lerwick police station twice in July to have his name placed on the register.

Last month Leask pled guilty to hiding a USB camera in the communal toilet at Blueshell Mussels packing factory at Sparl, near Brae, on 22 February this year.

A female worker found the camera wedged between pipes next to the sink in the domestic-style lavatory. She handed the device in to her manager, who saw Leask adjusting its position when she viewed its contents on her computer.

The police were called and Leask denied all knowledge of the device until he was told that he had been caught on camera himself.

Sheriff Graeme Napier had deferred sentence until Wednesday and placed Leask on the sex offenders register, but he got himself into more trouble when he failed to present himself at Lerwick police station.

On Wednesday he pled guilty to both offences, but his motives were no clearer after Leask failed to give social workers or his solicitor Tommy Allan any explanation for his behaviour.

Sheriff Napier described him as a hard working person whose actions had been a gross intrusion of privacy.

He added: Its difficult, as a male, to appreciate what the impact would be on the female victims who were intended to be victims of this offending.

However the sheriff said it would be inappropriate to send him to jail as it was his first offence and social workers suggested he could be helped to reduce the risk of reoffending.

Leask was placed on a 12 month supervision order with 66 hours voluntary work to be carried out over the next three months, and must pay a 240 fine for failing to register as a sex offender last month.

The sheriff said he did not want to place him under a curfew as this might encourage him to indulge in pornography.

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POLICE overheard a prostitute pleading with a drunken punter not to harm her after she had dialled 999.

The woman was working on the street when she was approached by Derry Gilfoy who agreed to pay 40 for her services, and they went to the nearby car park of a motor cycle dealership.

But Southampton Crown Court heard that Gilfoy, who had been drinking heavily, became violent, shouting and swearing at her before slapping her across the face. He then told the woman that as a working girl she would do as she was told, forcing her to the ground and hitting her.

Prosecutor Kate Freemantle said the heroin addict however managed to dial 999 on her mobile phone she had hidden down her top and they could hear her, crying, screaming and pleading with him to get off her.

Afterwards Gilfoy went home where he collapsed on the sofa before going to bed.

He was trapped by DNA left on her scarf.

Gilfoy, 36, of Rowan Close, Southampton, admitted rape, assault by penetration and possessing cannabis which was found at his home after his arrest.

Jailing him for five years, Judge Patrick Hooton told him: You treated this woman, prostitute or not, appallingly badly. You humiliated her.

In mitigation, Richard Onslow was remorseful and had saved the woman from the ordeal of having to give evidence. He must live with what he has done for a very long for what was cheap sexual gratification. He has ruined his life and that of his family.

Gilfoy was also placed on the sex offenders register for life.

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FORMER Shetland resident Chris Readings was jailed for 13 years at the High Court in Edinburgh after being found guilty of sexually abusing a young boy and girl in the islands.

The 44 year old, who left Shetland for Oxfordshire last year, was found guilty of six charges of abuse in various parts of the isles between May 2008 and January last year.

The offences included sodomy, attempted rape, making the 12 year old girl and 13 year old boy give him oral sex and perform sex acts on each other.

In court on Friday defence QC Bill Taylor said that Readings still denied the allegations and produced several character references.

These included a scrap book of photos and newspaper cuttings about his work helping female victims of sexual and other attacks, a reference from a former line manager in the ambulance service describing him as a diligent worker and a letter from a senior police Northampton officer praising him for risking his life by stopping at an accident on the M1 and tackling a blazing vehicle before emergency services arrived on the scene.

Readings had been involved in the attempt to set up an independent ambulance service in Shetland in recent years.

Judge Lord Brodie told Readings: Sexual abuse is cruel, it is selfish, it is damaging and in my view it falls to the courts to impose what is, frankly, a punitive sentence.

The judge also made an order extending his licence conditions for three years and added Readings name to the sex offenders register.

Northern Constabularys Det Ch Insp Kenny Anderson said: This was a serious child abuse case which has involved a number of agencies working together and resulted in inquiries being conducted throughout the United Kingdom.

I also wish to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the young victims who, despite suffering what can only be described as prolonged and sustained abuse, have shown immense courage.

Although Readings was presented with compelling evidence of his guilt, he continued to deny his crimes and chose to put his victims through the further ordeal of having to relive their abuse to give evidence in court.

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A 64-YEAR-OLD husband who downloaded scores of child pornography pictures has walked free from court still maintaining his innocence.

Douglas Gaunt kept his freedom but still refuses to accept responsibility for his crimes in the face of unanimous jury verdicts on 16 charges.

He was found guilty at Teesside Crown Court last month of making 59 indecent images of children by downloading them from the web.

In courts often dealing with cases involving hundreds or thousands of child abuse images, these were deemed to be a small number of pictures.

Judge John Walford said: The fact of the case is that were talking about two specific dates over 21 months ago and a small number of images, for the most part images of the lowest level of seriousness.

He gave Gaunt a community order - as prescribed by sentencing guidelines and suggested by a probation report - with two years supervision.

It will address the sort of factors that caused you to behave uncharacteristically, Im satisfied, on those two occasions, he added yesterday.

Defence counsel Paul Cleasby said Gaunt continued to protest innocence but fulfilled his obligations for the sex offenders register, on which he will remain for five years.

Mr Cleasby said: He is not somebody who ignores the authority of the court.

He has reached 64 without any relevant previous convictions and has blemished his good character by his behaviour in June 2009. It is a very short window of offending.

He added Gaunt found great solace in the support of his wife, he had not offended since and supervising him would benefit the public.

Gaunt, who said he had no intention of having a computer in his home again, was also given a sexual offences prevention order.

The prosecution had told jurors Gaunt, of Meadowview Road, Middlesbrough, was a man with a predilection for searching and looking for sexual images of children.

The photos were found under Gaunts password-protected profile on the family computer after police searched his home on June 12, 2009.

The trial heard how the investigation revealed searches for child pornography and links to 5,000 websites suggestive of child pornography, on Gaunts computer.

Gaunts name, age, the area he lived and hobbies and interests like sex sex sex and young girls were registered on social networking sites.

The police raid sprung from a probe into alleged communication between Gaunt and a convicted sex offender.

In their online chats gauntdouglas, a user name linked to Gaunts email address and home, talked of young prostitutes on Teesside.

Gaunt denied accessing, receiving, saving or searching for pictures of young girls or visiting chat rooms or social networking sites on the internet.

He denied any knowledge of the pictures on his machine and said he didnt know who put them there, but insisted that it was not him.

He commented of some of the images: Ive seen worse on the beach in Spain.

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A pervert has been jailed for six years for sexually abusing two girls.

John Rigby assaulted one girl and gave her "hush money" to stop her telling her mother.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the abuse by 53-year-old Rigby, of Grasmere Grove, Rochester, dated back several years but the victim did not report it until more recently.

Simon Taylor, prosecuting, told the jury Rigby also molested another girl.

He denied six charges of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, 10 of indecent assault and six of indecency with a child.

He was convicted last month of all charges except one of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, which was left on the court file.

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CHILD abuser Gary Haggas starts an 18-year prison term today - still denying the terrible crimes which wrecked his two daughters’ childhoods.

The 67-year-old former ice cream man shows no remorse for the litany of sexual abuse he inflicted on his two daughters decades ago.

He begins his long sentence as his victims bravely waive their right to anonymity and launch a campaign to encourage other abuse victims to speak out.

Judge Peter Armstrong told Haggas yesterday: “You’ve devastated their lives and robbed them effectively of a happy childhood.

“And you’ve now got to pay the price for that behaviour.”

Teesside Crown Court heard how he subjected the girls to systematic abuse for years in the 1970s and 1980s, sexually assaulting and raping them.

He molested them in the family homes in Hemlington and Middlesbrough, his car, one of the ice cream vans he operated in the town and their mum’s shop on Parliament Road.

Judge Armstrong said it was “a catalogue of the most appalling offences” against Janet Haggas and Jean Cookson.

The most serious crime was raping the two girls in each other’s presence - an offence which earned him an 18-year jail sentence on its own.

The judge read moving statements about the impact on the girls, now women in their forties, who had to relive their ordeals in the witness box.

He said: “These offences involved a gross abuse of a position of trust as a father. You should have been protecting these girls, not abusing them.

“They were carried out over a long period of time. They were particularly young and vulnerable when it all started.

“The offences were repeated over and over again.

“You continue to deny these offences and so you’ve shown absolutely no remorse whatsoever for what you’ve done.

“You offered sweets to the girls, told them they were your good girls, a form of bribery in my view, typical of paedophile-type behaviour.

“Your daughters have had to live with these offences and knowledge of them for very many, many years.”

Haggas’ had a previous conviction and nine-month prison sentence from 1996 for gross indecency with a boy.

The judge said this indicated “a distorted and perverted interest in sexual offending against children”.

He said it had to be a long sentence to punish him for the “dreadful” offences and show others that such behaviour “simply cannot be tolerated”.

Haggas, of Whingroves, Thornaby, denied all 25 charges against him and took the case to a long trial earlier this year.

The jury unanimously convicted Haggas of seven charges of rape, seven of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child, and cleared him of two rape charges.

He was accused of indecently assaulting another complainant but he was acquitted on all eight of these charges.

Jurors heard the shocking details of the sexual attacks, which started when each of the girls was about seven and carried on into their teens. The trial was told that Haggas was “a controlling and manipulative abuser”.

In both cases, the abuse started as Haggas touched the girls as they sat on his knee, then escalated to worse assaults and repeated rapes.

He abused Janet regularly for about 10 years, raping her on the day of the Queen’s Jubilee in 1977 when she was just 11.

He raped Jean while she was off sick from school and once kept her home to rape her while the rest of the family were in Albert Park.

He said to her she should “do as she was told”, ignoring her protests and saying no, and once gave her a £5 note to try to ensure her silence.

The allegations emerged decades later as a detective was told of the abuse and formal complaints were made.

Haggas denied the offences in police interviews and claimed the women were lying after getting their heads together.

Defence QC Jamie Hill asked the judge for mercy yesterday.

He told the court: “Mr Haggas has consistently denied these offences and of course continues so to do.”

He said the crimes stopped 28 years ago and Haggas’ risk of re-offending had diminished.

The judge did not reduce the sentence because of Haggas’ “infirmity”.

Standing with a walking stick in the dock, Haggas was said to have high blood pressure, hip problems, awaited surgery and took disability benefits.

The judge said reports indicated Haggas, who did voluntary vehicle and maintenance work for his church, posed a risk to children in the future.

He was given a sexual offences prevention order banning him from unsupervised contact with under-18s.

He will be banned from working with children and will be on the sex offenders’ register - all indefinitely.

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A rapist who had evaded justice for more than 25 years was finally jailed yesterday after a local newspaper reporter uncovered vital evidence to crack the case.

Financial adviser Kevin Moloney, 44, went on trial last year for the sickening rape of a 69-year-old woman in her home in 1985.

He had been arrested after new DNA evidence came to light from a ‘cold case’ review by police, but he walked free when the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict.

The victim died nine years ago and Moloney, a divorced father-of-two who was 19 at the time, claimed she consented to sex.

But Nicky Harley, a reporter with the Hull Daily Mail, investigated the case and achieved what the prosecution had failed to do by exposing the defendant’s story as a lie.

Humberside Police had lost vital crime scene photographs and when Mrs Harley tracked down the retired superintendent who originally led the inquiry she discovered he had kept copies of his own.

A photograph of the smashed back door supported the victim’s original account that he had forced his way inside. Moloney claimed the elderly widow consented to sex on the sofa after they had a drink together.

However, a picture of newspapers and rubbish piled up on the sofa indicated the reclusive victim’s version that she was raped in the hallway was more believable.
Moloney was due to have a retrial at Hull Crown Court, but faced with the additional evidence he pleaded guilty to rape and was jailed for four years.

Mrs Harley was praised by the judge and given the High Sheriff’s Award in recognition of her vital role in the case.

Judge Michael Mettyear said he was ‘quite sure’ that the journalist’s conscientious work in uncovering fresh evidence led to the defendant pleading guilty. He said :’He knew he had nowhere else to turn.’

Adding: ’I praise her without criticism of the officers investigating the offence. They were not to know the superintendent had evidence that could help the case.’

Mother-of-two Mrs Harley, 32, was in court and cried when she heard she was being honoured with an award. She said later: 'Every journalist hopes to make a difference in the work they do and I am pleased I was able to do that.’

Commenting on finding the vital photos, she said: 'I knew the jury were asking if there were any pictures of the scene and they were told that there weren't because they had been destroyed over time.'

She arranged to interview retired Detective Superintendent Barry Lilley for a background article about the case and was astonished with the results.

‘I told him about the situation with photographs and said he should have copies of his own. He told me he needed to check in his loft and then he called me back a couple of hours later to tell me he’d found them.’

Mr Lilley said he routinely kept his own copies of crime scene photos. 

He said: 'I'm pleased these photos have now formed the backbone of the prosecution evidence, which finally brought a guilty plea to this despicable, serious crime.'

After escaping justice as a teenager the rapist went on to marry and have a family. He was tracked down when DNA taken for a minor cannabis offence in 2009 was matched to scientific evidence from the rape by a ‘cold case’ review team.

Commenting on the case, the head of Humberside’s Major Incident Team, Detective Superintendent Dena Fleming, said it was a ‘tragedy’ the victim had died not knowing her attacker would be brought to justice, adding: 'Her family will hopefully take some comfort from the fact that justice has finally been done. My sympathy and that of my team goes out to them.'

DS Fleming promised to continue to investigate other unsolved sex attacks, but made no mention of the reporter’s role in cracking the case in her statement.

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A FORMER teacher accused of kidnapping a child has left the Hampshire covers band he played guitar in.

It is also understood Nicholas Haines, 30, of Lovage Road, Whiteley, is no longer working at The Romsey School, where he was an IT teacher since September 2007.

He has admitted a charge of having unlawful sexual activity with a teenage girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, but denies a separate charge of abduction.

Haines used to play guitar in Romsey-based four-piece band Moonshot Drive-by, but left last October.

He is currently on bail until a further court hearing next month.

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Trustees of Open Sight were unaware that Chris Hedges had been jailed after admitting five cha-rges of having unlawful sex with a 14-year-old girl.

They didn’t carry out a criminal records check when they recruited him because the job didn’t involve him coming into contact with young people.

However, the Daily Echo has discovered that his role changed over time and he ended up dealing with vulnerable youngsters, even though he had been banned for life from working with children.

Hedges’ sick past only came to light after he was dismissed from his chief executive post for alleged bullying. Trustees told the Daily Echo that he would never have been offered the job if they had known about his convictions.

None of the current board of trustees of Open Sight, which supports thousands of people with sight loss across Hampshire, were in place when Hedges was appointed more than four years ago.

But a spokesman for the charity, which has bases in Eastleigh and Bishopstoke, confirmed Hedges had never made anyone aware of his previous conviction, or the fact that he is on the sex offenders’ register.

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A MAN who raped and sexually abused three young girls was yesterday jailed for 15 years.

Mark Patrick Henderson, 49, gave the girls alcohol and used an element of coercion while carrying out the offences.

But Durham Crown Court heard that after the allegations came to light, in December 2009, Henderson continually refused to accept his guilt and only began to make admissions on the day of his scheduled trial, last month.

Julie Clemitson, prosecuting, said each of his victims had to brace themselves to come to court to give evidence, while one witness was even flown from the US for the trial.

But over the course of two days, Henderson finally came clean and admitted a total of 11 charges, including three of rape, indecency with a child and indecent assault.

He was remanded in custody pending preparation of reports by the Probation Service.

Henderson, of Bishopton Lane, Stockton, who was previously from north-west Durham, was brought back to court for sentence, yesterday.

Aspects of the victim impact statements were outlined to the hearing, reflecting the long-lasting effect his abuse has had on his victims.

Robert Mochrie, for Henderson, who is of previous good character, told the court: “He’s a man of few words and often struggles to get his message across.

“There’s very little a person in his position can do to say how sorry they are. Perhaps the most they can do is to admit the offences and he did that, albeit at the foot of the door.

“He made blanket denials to police in interview and he’s been at pains to find courage to admit to his wife what he did.

“As long as he could, perhaps rather foolishly, he deluded his partner into what he maintained was the truth.”

Imposing the sentence, Judge Christopher Prince said it would have been 17 years if Henderson had not made his eventual admissions.

Henderson will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.

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A former policeman who committed a string of sex offences against children, including one in Warwickshire, has been jailed for life after a judge described him as "every parent's worst nightmare".

A former policeman who committed a string of sex offences against children, including one in Warwickshire, has been jailed for life after a judge described him as "every parent's worst nightmare".

Daniel Lishman used jobs as a mobile dog-groomer and a TV licensing officer to help him carry out at least eight offences and also posed as a policeman to indecently assault two young girls, Coventry Crown Court heard.

The serial paedophile was arrested in April last year after attacking a 12-year-old girl while pretending to check on a boiler at an address in Southam, Warwickshire.

Judge Peter Carr ordered the 37-year-old, of Raunds, Northamptonshire, to serve at least 11 years before he can be considered for parole.

Lishman was convicted at previous hearings of a total of 26 counts and asked for four others to be considered.

The charges, including one of rape and 12 of sexual assault, related to a total of 13 victims, including three with disabilities or learning difficulties, as well as hundreds of indecent images of children.

Judge Carr was told that Lishman, who served with Northamptonshire Police between 1995 and 2002, was linked to a string of offences in Northamptonshire, separate from the Warwickshire case, after detectives who arrested him found a camera memory card hidden in one of his socks.

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A joke shop owner who filmed himself sexually abusing children has been jailed indefinitely.

Police discovered the vile images after seizing David Slaters computers when they received a tip-off that he had been downloading indecent pictures of children from the internet.

The court was told one of his victims called him Santa Claus. Slater, 60, former owner of the Loony Bin, Armley, Leeds, abused a boy and a girl in his shop as well as at his home nearby.

After his arrest was reported in the Yorkshire Evening Post, a third victim came forward saying Slater had abused her several years earlier.

Slater, of Edinburgh Place, Armley, was yesterday jailed indefinitely after a judge heard he posed a significant risk to children in the future.

A psychiatric report said Slater was likely to prey on children again if he is ever released from prison.

After the hearing, Det Con Pam Gillings, of West Yorkshire Polices abusive images unit, said: David Slater is a dangerous committed paedophile who has used his position in the community to gain access to vulnerable children in order to abuse them for his own sexual gratification.

Richard Clews, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court police received intelligence in March last year that Slater had been downloading child porn. Computers at his business and home were seized which contained around 10,000 images.

Some included pictures and films of Slater with a boy and a girl, both under the age of 13. Officers then traced the youngsters.

The boy had been given money by Slater and on one occasion was given cider to drink which made him tipsy.

Mr Clews said: The prosecution submit that the giving of money and the giving of drink was the defendant grooming the boy for sexual activity, After his arrest Slater told officers he didnt think his behaviour had been inappropriate and that he thought it was just fun.

The third victim later came forward and told officers how Slater abused her on at least three occasions. Mr Clews added: At that stage he had a white beard and she called him Santa Claus.

Of course, he was very far indeed from the reality of Santa Claus.

Slater pleaded guilty to 18 counts relating to possession of child porn and seven relating to sex assaults on children under the age of 13.

Stephen Smithson, mitigating, said both psychiatric and pre sentence reports had recommended Slater be jailed indefinitely after judging him to pose a significant risk to the public in the future. Mr Smithson asked that Slater be given credit for pleading guilty to the offences at the earliest opportunity.

Judge Roger Ibbotson told Slater he must serve a minimum of five years in prison before he is eligible to apply to the parole board for release.

He said: You show no remorse whatsoever or any indication that you begin to understand the effect of your conduct on these children.

If you ever leave prison you will leave with absolutely nothing, having lost you assets and other possessions as a result of these proceedings.

It is clear that a very long period of imprisonment is necessary.

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A teacher who was caught with dozens of indecent images of children on his computer has escaped jail.

Philip Scott of Blackhorse Drove, near Littleport, admitted 10 counts of making and possessing indecent images of children, as well as two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images involving adult women.

At Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday Judge Gareth Hawkesworth stopped short of sending Scott to jail and instead handed him an eight-month suspended sentence and ordered him to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years

Police raided the 44-year-old's home in January after receiving a tip-off from police in Lincolnshire who had been monitoring activity on a website, the court was told.

When police arrived, Scott fainted with shock and had to be aided by officers while a computer and CDs were seized.

Police later discovered dozens of images of children on the computer ranging from more than 60 images at level one right through to two images at level four on the Copine scale, a measure used to grade the severity of the images. Level five images are judged the worst kind.

Until his arrest, Scott had been a history teacher at Springwood High School in King's Lynn but he was suspended from his post after charges were brought by police and sacked last August, after he entered a guilty plea.

Summing up, Judge Hawkesworth, said: 'The gravity of these offences is such that by providing a market for such images you are directly contributing to the effect upon children who are forced into such activity. You are also contributing to grossly violent behaviour so far as mature women are concerned.

'It is a real tragedy that you have squandered your own career by behaving in this way and in a way which you knew was wrong.'

Shortly after being arrested in January, Scott attempted to take his own life by overdosing on pills and drink and confessed what he had done in a letter written to his mother.

Dylan Moses, in mitigation, said: 'He is a man of previous good character and a very good teacher and part of the shame in this is that he will not be able to resume his job as a teacher.'

As part of his sentence, it was also ruled that Scott would be forbidden from working with children under the age of 16 and must complete an internet sex offenders course.

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Living in Cardiff area since release.

A serial rapist who used his minimum experience as a soldier to seduce women has been jailed indefinitely.

Tyrone Clarke, of Hengoed, Caerphilly county, was convicted of 10 charges including rape, false imprisonment, causing actual bodily harm and kidnap.

The court heard he had dropped out of the Royal Marines after nine weeks.

The 36-year-old was given an indefinite sentence at Cardiff Crown Court but must serve at least seven years behind bars before being assessed for parole.

The Recorder of Cardiff, Nicholas Cooke QC, told Clarke: "I find you to be an extremely callous and devious threat to women.

"You will continue to present a risk of grave sexual, physical and psychological harm to women for a very long period."

The former nightclub doorman chatted up women with stories about his supposed 12 years in the Marines and going on missions with the SAS.

He attacked four women after warning he could kill them with his bare hands from his military training.

Prosecutor Greg Taylor QC said: "The fact is he was obsessed with the Marines but had never seen active service.

"He did some Marines basic training in Plymouth but requested to leave before the demanding training began.

"He told one woman he used to be 6ft tall but lost four inches in height after jumping out of a plane.

"He said he had weapons and knew how to hurt people and make them disappear.

"He held one woman by the throat, telling her: 'I've spent 12 years in the Marines and I'm trained - I could squeeze you and you would be dead'."

Weapons hidden

One 18-year-old woman reported Clarke to police and then other victims came forward.

One rape victim said he told her there were weapons hidden in the garden.

"I thought it would be guns and military things. I did believe it - I never looked," she said.

She said she had a "whirlwind" romance with Clarke but he would later interrogate her about sleeping with other men.

Mr Taylor said: "Clarke impressed women by appearing caring and understanding, before intimidating and controlling them.

"Rape is not always committed by a hooded man jumping out of the bushes - Clarke is a serial rapist."

Greg Bull, defending, said: "Being in prison away from women is not his problem. His problem will be when he comes back into society."

After the hearing CPS Gwent sexual offences specialist, Kath Coleman, said: "Tyrone Clarke subjected his victims to degrading attacks which left devastating emotional scars as well as physical ones.

"He used intimidation and bullying to get his own way and was ruthless in the way he his exploited his victims.

"We want to send out a clear message that CPS Gwent and Gwent police will do everything in our power to bring violent sexual offenders to justice."

The jury failed to reach verdicts in respect of five further charges against Clarke, and CPS Gwent confirmed that it would not be seeking a retrial.