Locations
Long Eaton, Derbyshire, NG10
Description
A rape victim was forced to play dead in a desperate attempt to survive a sex attack by a predator, a court was told.
Vile Jason Sedgwick was convicted of a string of sex assaults after pleading guilty to rape at Derby Crown Court.
He was jailed for 16 years after the court heard how in one sex attack he ripped his victim's clothes off and put his hands around her throat.
The victim then played dead, which police claim is the only reason she survived the ordeal.
Derby Crown Court heard Sedgwick, 30, also sexually assaulted two other women - attacking all three in the space of eight months.
Sedgwick stalked one of his victims to her home and then went inside uninvited to sexually assault her while her mother and son slept upstairs.
The court was told how he groped a third woman in the street, putting his hand down her top.
Judge John Burgess told him he was "a danger to women" as he jailed him for 16 years.
He said: "Looking at all the offences together, it is a very disturbing pattern, because what you were doing was loitering outside pubs and clubs, waiting to find a vulnerable, lone female who had been seriously affected by drink.
"And on three occasions you exploited their situation for your sexual gratification."
He said the offences were "planned, purposeful and predatory".
Sedgwick, of Long Eaton, Derbys, admitted the rape charge on the first day of his trial held in March.
While the rapist denied the two sexual assaults, which were committed in the months leading up to the rape, a jury found him guilty on both counts.
Grace Hale, prosecuting, said of Sedgwick's final attack that he approached the woman after she became separated from friends in the early hours of July 6 last year after leaving a nightclub in Long Eaton.
She said: "He kept picking her up like a baby and she told him to put her down. He did it a few times. He put her down eventually and she said she needed to ring her friend."
Her friends however we unable to find her until after the attack had taken place, the court heard.
Sedgwick was arrested after police put out an appeal and a witness came forward and identified him.
Kath Goddard, for Sedgwick, said he had no recollection of the rape, but when he had become aware of what he had done, he was "truly appalled and ashamed" that he was capable of doing such a thing.
Sedgwick was told he would be on licence in the community from when he was released until 2036. He will be on the sex offenders' register for life.
Following the sentencing Detective Inspector Donna Sisson said: "This could have been a murder investigation."
She added the three victims had been "incredibly brave in coming forward and going through the judicial process".
Investigating officer Detective Constable Ritchie Parkins said: "I'm pleased all three of the victims have got justice and hope they can take some comfort that this dangerous man has now been taken off the streets."