Locations
Brougham Street, Darlington, DL1
Description
A child rapist has been branded a significant risk to the public as he begins a 12-year prison sentence.
Anthony Rennard, 28, raped a teenage girl in 2020. Prosecutor Richard Bennett told Teesside Crown Court that the girl "froze" and initially felt unable to report the crime, but did so six months later.
Rennard, now of HMP Holme House, Stockton, but formerly of Brougham Street in Darlington, denied rape but was convicted after a trial late last year.
The court heard that the girl still struggles to sleep, has nightmares and cannot go near the area where she was attacked. In a statement she said: "I feel low. It's affected my education, I don't want to get out of bed.
"I feel like this has changed my life forever."
Nicholas Askins, mitigating, said that Rennard started drinking when he was of primary school age and that a psychiatrist had found that he has cognitive difficulties. The court heard that while on remand, Rennard has taken courses in reading and writing in prison.
Judge Timothy Stead told Rennard that he poses a significant risk to the public and jailed him for 12 years. Rennard must sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely and was made subject to a restraining order, prohibiting him from contacting his victim or mentioning her on social media, for an indefinite period.
Rennard has previous convictions for burglary, firearms offences and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. In 2016, in Glasgow, he attacked a friend over a £30 debt.
He slashed the man's face with a Stanley knife and dragged him out of a house, kicked and punched him, before stamping on his head. Rennard served a five-year-seven-month-sentence for the attack.