Locations
Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD
Description
A BRADFORD police officer has been jailed for ten years after being found guilty of a "disgusting sexual assault" on a woman after a night out more than five years ago.
West Yorkshire Police Sergeant Ben Lister, 36, was found to have raped the woman at a mutual friends house following a night out drinking together in a group on August Bank Holiday weekend 2016.
Lister had denied the offence, claiming his victim consented to the intercourse, but he was found guilty of rape and assault by penetration by a jury at Bradford Crown Court today.
His vile attack led to his victim becoming pregnant, but Lister denied knowing he had fathered the womans child.
Bradford Crown Court heard Lister raped his paralytically drunk victim - many years his junior - as she drifted in and out of consciousness at a friend's house.
When she asked if they'd had intercourse he lied, telling her he'd only performed oral sex.
He said the woman was later in denial that the baby had resulted from a rape, but a DNA test proved Lister was 18 million times more likely to be the dad than not.
In sentencing, Judge Jonathan Rose said: "What you did on that night was to rape a woman who was, in my view, vulnerable because of her physical condition.
"This woman was out with her friends... Your account is that you were not heavily drinking. You should have been more aware of your responsibilities.
"She returned to a house where she had stayed before and had the right to feel safe.
"She drifted between a state of unconsciousness where she was aware of - but unable to stop - what you were doing.
"You took advantage of knowing she could not physically fight you off.
"You penetrated her with your fingers, you penetrated her with penis. You did not use protection.
"The consequences of such were devastating for this victim because any act of rape is devastating to the victim, but devastating for her because you got her pregnant.
"The next day, you contacted her via text message. She asked you whether you'd had sex together and you told the first of many lies, you said you hadn't.
"You thought you had got away with it and you nearly did. But a few months later, she realised she was pregnant and she realised that she had been raped.
"You gave not for one single moment had any remorse for what you did."
After getting a taxi back to a friend's house they had both slept on separate sofas, but in the early hours of the morning, the woman woke to Lister pulling her from the sofa and drifted in and out of consciousness during the rape.
Prosecutor Richard Woolfall, read out the victim's impact statement which said she 'saw Lister' in her baby's face.
She said she used to "sort of resent" her child as her child was "a constant reminder of what he did to me".
She described her child as "caring" and said she just wanted her child to "know the truth".
Following the jurys verdict he was jailed for 10 years for rape and four years for the assault by penetration, to be served concurrently, and required to sign the sex offenders register for life.
Pauline McCullagh, head of the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit for the Crown Prosecution Service Yorkshire and Humberside, said: This woman was raped, and as a result, she became pregnant with her attackers child.
The offence of rape has profound effects on victims. Although he was not on duty when he committed this terrible crime, Lister was still a serving police officer, charged with upholding the law and protecting the public.
Our thoughts remain with the victim, as they have been throughout.