David Smith 54

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A Derby man raped a woman as she slept. Derby Crown Court heard how David Smith took advantage of the victim as she lay vulnerable and that she kept the sex attack secret for a number of years.

When she told the police, the now 53-year-old, of Allenton, was arrested, questioned and charged. And in his pre-sentence report, the defendant showed what his interviewing officers described as “an entrenched attitude” in believing he had done nothing wrong.

Jailing him for seven and a half years, Recorder Adrian Reynolds said: “When a judge has to sentence in a case like this he or she has to take into account a number of things. Primarily, and I mean primarily, there is the extent to which you have ruined (the victim’s) life and the enormity of that has to be factored in.

“She has waited a long time to get justice and I hope she feels she will get justice. But on the other hand you have pleaded guilty to this and one thing that definitely does mean is that you have spared her having to give evidence and that means you will get credit because other people in the same position as you don't plead guilty and face their victims when they come to court and relive their horrors, being accused of lying, and that makes their ordeal immeasurably worse.

“You haven’t done that. But what you did do is degrade and undermine her self-esteem, undermined her self-confidence and in her own words you have shown a complete lack of empathy. The fact is that although you have pleaded guilty to this matter you have not expressed any genuine remorse. You are a man in your 50s now and you have never been to prison before.”

Smith, of Mowbray Street, pleaded guilty to rape. Lauren Fisher, mitigating, said that meant that the victim did not have to come to court and give evidence.

She said: “Of course this is an immediate custodial sentence, he has been aware of that since day one. He is well-supported by his family who have attended the vast majority of the hearings in this court.

“There are references from various members of his family and they speak of a different man to the one who appears before the court today.”

As well as the jail term, Recorder Reynolds told Smith he will be on the sex offender register for life. He will serve two thirds of that sentence - five years - before he will be released.