Description
A sadistic prison officer who raped four women and kidnapped a series of teenage girls while posing as a policeman was jailed for life yesterday.
John David Hall, 35, attacked some of his victims when they agreed to go out with him, and assaulted others after luring them into his car on the pretext of asking directions.
He indecently assaulted girls aged 12 and 13 and tried to attack three others aged 13, 14 and 15 over a period of eight years.
One of Hall's rape victims suffered a double fracture of the jaw when he punched her to keep her quiet.
Hall, who is twice married, carried out some of his attacks while running a wing at Wakefield Prison. He carried out some of the kidnappings while driving home in his uniform. He told victims he was a policeman and briefly showed them an identity card that seemed to confirm it.
He was convicted of five counts of rape at an earlier trial. However, they could not be reported at the time because he was awaiting a court appearance on the -kidnappings.
Passing sentence at Leeds Crown Court, Mr Justice Goldring told Hall that the appropriate determinative sentence for his crimes was 25 years, and that he must serve at least half that before being considered for parole. But he went on: "I want to make this absolutely clear. The sentence I pass is one of life imprisonment. It is not a sentence of twelve-and-a-half years.''
The judge said that although Hall now appeared to accept his guilt on the rape charges, he had put all four victims through the ordeal of giving evidence in the witness box.
At his trial in March the jury heard that the prison officer derived pleasure from forcing women to have sex with him.
He raped four women and tried to rape a fifth. One victim was a prostitute and another was a 17-year-old he picked up while driving.
The others included a 19-year-old he met after a football match and a young doctor who had stayed at his flat after a night out. Julian Goose, QC, prosecuting, told the jury that Hall had been a prison officer from the age of 20, serving at Wakefield, Full Sutton, near York, and at Wetherby.
"To many who knew him the defendant appeared to lead a normal life with secure employment in the prison service," he said. "The reality, however, is that over a period of years from 1997 to 2001 the defendant raped women and with some of them he also used violence, fracturing the jaw of one of them in the course of the rape."
Mr Goose said that Hall admitted having sex with all of the women but claimed it was always consensual. The court was told that in March 1997 he drove a 19-year-old back to her flat in Leeds, picking her up outside a sports stadium where he had been playing football. He got into her house by claiming that he needed to use the lavatory. Once inside he launched his attack.
In November 1997, Hall was driving along Harehills Lane in Leeds when he saw a 17-year-old girl he recognised from a nightclub. She got into his car after he invited her out for a drink. Instead he took her to his home in Rothwell where he raped her.
Hall's next victim, a 21-year-old prostitute, was attacked in March 1998. She had agreed to perform a sex act for cash but he later forced himself on her. He punched her so hard she was left semi-conscious on the floor. She needed an emergency operation to repair the double fracture to her jaw.
By late 2001 Hall had moved to a flat in St John's Square, Wakefield, where he tried to rape a newly qualified GP.
Hall was first arrested after the attack on the 17-year-old, but police let him go because there was insufficient evidence to detain him. He was arrested again last year in respect of all the offences.
He married his first wife in May 1996. She left him in 1997 when he was in police custody on suspicion of rape.
He met his current wife in Wakefield in 2001 and they married two years later. He was arrested hours after she gave birth to their first child.