Description
A 42-year sentence has been imposed on a man who raped and sexually assaulted a number of women and girls in the Dover and Canterbury areas.
Ian Hamilton was charged with numerous sexual offences after Kent Police's Cold Case Investigation Team reviewed a 1988 investigation into an attack on a girl in the village of Hersden.
That in turn linked him to a 1992 report concerning abuse he inflicted on a child in Dover in the mid-1980s.
Cold case investigation
Detectives began tracing and interviewing people who had come into contact with Hamilton around that time, leading to a number of women revealing they had also been the victims of violence and sexual abuse at his hands.
In total, officers identified a further nine women who had been victims of sexual offences between 1977 and 2000, and a man who had been seriously assaulted by him in 1991.
As a result, more than 50 previously unreported offences were investigated and Hamilton was arrested at his home in Snodland in March 2024.
Following his arrest, a computer in his possession was found to contain more than 1,500 indecent images.
The 63 year old stood trial at Inner London Crown Court and was convicted by a jury of all 59 charges including rape, indecent assault and causing grievous bodily harm, having admitted possession of indecent images at the start of the trial.
Jailed
On Friday 13 December 2024, he received a sentence of 42 years and one month. His Honour Judge Silas Reid described Hamilton as 'cunning and sadistic' and a 'monster of the night'.