Rejected lover's torture revenge

(First Edition)

A MAN who raped and tortured his former lover in front of their two children was jailed for six years at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Judge Neil Denison QC was told how the man drugged the woman, aged 21, and held her captive in a hotel room with their terrified children, aged four and one.

The woman was bound and handcuffed and, during repeated sexual assaults, he used an electric stun gun on her. At one point he held a knife to his baby girl's throat to stop her mother from screaming.

Judge Denison said the man carried out 'a horrifying series of sexual assaults designed to humiliate her' as a punishment for rejecting him. She had ended their four-year relationship three weeks earlier.

And he warned that even after his release from prison, the 38-year-old salesman would remain a danger to anyone with whom he might have a personal relationship.

The court heard that the victim was still suffering post-traumatic stress after the ordeal, and her young son was 'emotionally scarred' by the sight of his mother being brutally raped.

John Williams, for the prosecution, told how the rapist lured his young family out for a day's shopping and promised them 'a surprise'. But when the mother complained of a headache he gave her an overdose of anti-depressants and tranquillisers which caused her to lose consciousness.

She awoke to find herself in the hotel room with her hands bound. The man told her: 'You will enjoy it.'

She recognised the stun gun as one he had bought her some time before as a form of self protection, the court was told.

In the early hours of the next morning, the man telephoned his former lover's sister and told her: 'We are having a good time.'

Mr Williams said: ''The thread that runs through what he had to say (to police) is that he was desperately in love with and fond of the victim and wanted to get back at her.'

He told detectives: 'I only wanted to hurt her as she hurt me.'