Locations
Jubilee Road, Buckley, Flintshire, CH7
Description
A former footballer raped a sixth-form student while she slept. Terry Nicholas met the girl, who was then aged 17, while drinking at a pub before they went back to his house with a group of other people.
The 36-year-old waited until the teenager, who was "completely out of it" went to bed at the property. He told the others he was "just going to the toilet", snuck into the bedroom and began assaulting her as she slept.
His victim woke up during the attack and pushed him away. He then told her and another woman to leave the house.
North Wales Live reported that Nicholas, of Jubilee Road in Buckley, was jailed for eight and a half years after a jury found him guilty of the attack which took place in his home in the summer of 2021.
The court had heard Nicholas had bought cocaine as he was a "casual user" of the drug, the court heard, and the judge believed that having sex with the woman was his "clear intention" that night.
Prosecutor Siôn ap Mihangel told the court, through a victim impact statement, that young woman felt "constant uneasiness" around men since the traumatic ordeal and dreaded going to sleep due to "night terrors" and having the feeling that "someone was back on top of her". She endured a "depressive episode" and "struggled with self-worth" following the attack.
Defending, Martyn Walsh, said his client had a "reasonable career" playing football for local teams. He stressed Nicholas had "no offences of a sexual nature on his record".
However, the judge Simon Mills felt that there was some "concerning" sides to the defendant identified through a pre-sentence report for the courts. Judge Mills said the 36-year-old's attitude was "misogynistic" when he claimed he "didn't need to commit sexual offences" to sleep with women.
The judge went on to lock Nicholas up for eight-and-a-half years, listing him as a sex offender for life. He said: "You raped her and treated her with contempt. And in effect, that's what you've done ever since.
"You've not shown a shred of remorse, let alone recognition, for what you did. You provided misogynistic views verging on an attitude you could not care less about what you're facing. I urge you to take a long, hard look at yourself, the way you act, the way you treat women and the way you think."