Description
A rapist held a gun to his victim's head and threatened to 'smoke' him if he dared to report his horrendous ordeal. Ashley Cleary abducted the man and repeatedly raped him in the street, before forcing him into his home where he raped him again.
Before fleeing, remorseless Cleary, 39, put a gun to the man's head and told him: "If you tell anyone, I'll smoke you." His DNA was found on the man's underwear and when police went to arrest him, Cleary was discovered hiding in a loft, Bolton Crown Court heard.
Now Cleary, a dad from Salford, has been jailed for 21 years after being found guilty of a catalogue of crimes, including rape and kidnap. Prosecutors told how the victim knew Cleary as he was a regular customer at his place of work.
In December last year Cleary arrived at his work in Salford and was behaving in an ‘intimidating and threatening manner’, prosecutor Daniel Calder said. At one point Cleary opened up his coat to ‘expose what appeared to be a handgun’, the prosecutor said.
The victim stayed at work with colleagues for a time after Cleary had left, to try and allow time for him to leave. But when he went outside, Cleary was still there.
At one point Cleary took hold of the man’s arm and told him: “You’re going to drive my car home.” He ‘felt compelled’ to go with Cleary, due to what had happened earlier but the ‘car’ was a ruse.
Cleary, who was also armed with a hammer, led the man down an alleyway and repeatedly raped him during several incidents. He launched a barrage of homophobic abuse as he committed the sickening crimes, labelling his victim a ‘f****** dirty little queer’.
At one point, Cleary told the terrified man: “Come on, we’re going to yours.” They made their way to the victim’s home, where Cleary placed the handgun on a side table.
Cleary then proceeded to rape the man in his own bed, as he continued to subject him to homophobic abuse. He then forced his victim to ‘reassure’ him ‘that he wasn’t gay’, Mr Calder said.
After committing another rape, Cleary got up and retrieved his gun, before putting the barrel to the man’s head. “If you tell anyone, I’ll smoke you,” he told him, before he left the property.
The victim left his home in his bare feet, wearing only a dressing gown, and visited a friend to tell them what had happened. The police were alerted and Cleary was arrested at his home on Christmas Eve, where he was found hiding in a loft.
Tests revealed the presence of Cleary’s DNA on his victim’s underwear. Cleary, of no fixed address, denied all wrongdoing, and at trial claimed he and the man had engaged in consensual sex.
But a jury rejected his lies and found him guilty of seven counts of rape, one count of kidnap, one count of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and one count of threatening with an offensive weapon. Cleary said 'I'm innocent by the way' as he was sent down to begin his sentence.
In a statement read on his behalf, the victim said: "I felt like it was never going to end. He used and abused me for his own benefit, for reasons of his own that I will never understand."
The court heard how Cleary has racked up 34 previous criminal offences. He was once hauled before the courts following an incident where he turned up at a pub armed with an axe.
Defending, Rachel Shenton said Cleary still maintains his innocence. She said he had been due to work on the day of the incident as a labourer but that his shift was cancelled due to bad weather and he instead went on a ‘drinking binge’.
Ms Shenton said Cleary has suffered from a number of ‘long standing’ issues, including anxiety and depression and ‘intellectual difficulties’. She said Cleary, who has a female partner who stands by him, would find prison ‘particularly difficult’.
Judge Nick Clarke KC handed Cleary a 25 year extended sentence, after declaring him a 'dangerous' criminal. He will serve at least two-thirds of a 21 year prison sentence, before the Parole Board decide whether it is safe for him to be release.
He will then be monitored for a further four years on licence.