Rapist Mark Anthony Thompson must serve minimum of 11 and a half years after judge says catalogue of offences is "truly horrific"
7th May 2014 in News
By Megi Rychlikova
A RAPIST described as “any woman’s worst nightmare” has been jailed for life for a catalogue of horrific sex crimes in York.
Mark Anthony Thompson, 37, prowled the city centre streets late at night looking for women to attack, Teesside Crown Court heard.
He abducted one and raped her repeatedly over a fivehour period, telling her it would be her “last night on earth” unless she did as he wanted.
He was stopped from attacking another in a Coney Street doorway by two doormen on their way home.
Thompson, described by a friend as a “big, bad wolf ”, also went into the homes and bedrooms of two further women. One managed to get him out of her house using a knife but he came back and she fled her home dressed only in her nightwear, fearing for her life.
Thompson left his victims so traumatised they are now scared to go out at night and the student is constantly looking over her shoulder, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Jailing him for life with a minimum term of 11 and a half years for nine offences, Judge Michael Taylor, pictured, said: "You have shown not an ounce of mercy or remorse. These offences amount to any woman's worst nightmare.
This catalogue of offences is truly horrific.
"You are in my judgment one of the most dangerous offenders I have ever had to deal with.
"You will pursue women in the early hours of the morning. You will go into their own homes. You will not take no for an answer. You will likely pose a considerable risk to women for many, many years into the future."
Each of his victims had to give evidence in court against Thompson because he denied every offence and, according to the judge, had the "audacity" to claim the two women he had attacked in the street had started the sex acts.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," the judge said.
The jury convicted Thompson, of Hospital Fields Road, Fulford Road, York, of sexual assault in Coney Street in 2009, trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence and attempted rape of the woman who fled her home in 2013, attempted sexual assault on a third woman in her home, and kidnap, three rapes and attempted rape of the student.
He showed no reaction as he was jailed for life. At the end of the hearing, he held one hand palm downwards over his clenched fist and held it first towards the judge and then to the jury who had returned to court to see him sentenced after they returned their unanimous verdicts on Friday.
The judge praised Det Con Cheryl Quinn of North Yorkshire Police, the officer in charge of the case and the rest of the police team for bringing Thompson to justice and excused the jurors from jury service for ten years.
No woman was safe from married painter and decorator who prowled the streets looking for victims to sexually abuse them
MARK Anthony Thompson was a married painter and decorator with children and a martial arts teacher.
But, as Teesside Crown Court heard, he was also referred to as a “big, bad wolf ”, prowling the streets of York in search of women so he could subject them to sex ordeals for his own gratification.
No woman was safe. He ignored their objections and those of anyone nearby and tried to terrify them into silence.
Detective Chief Inspector Maria Taylor, who led the investigation, said: “I would like to take this opportunity to praise the victims for their bravery for reporting these distressing crimes and having the courage to give evidence in court.
“Although this verdict can never undo the events they endured, I hope the fact that Thompson will now go to prison brings them some comfort.”
The crimes of the 37-year-old of Jamaican origin began when he was a hotel waiter and spotted a woman on her own in Coney Street late at night in 2009.
“It’s all right, she’s with me,” he told three men who saw him sexually abusing her in a doorway.
But she screamed in terror and he was arrested.
He bluffed his way through the police questioning and was released without charge. But after he was arrested for a similar, more serious offence four years later, police resurrected the case.
In the meantime, he had realised he would have to be more careful about witnesses and had changed to attacking women indoors.
In 2013, having become a painter and decorator, he was introduced to a 32-year-old woman by a mutual friend in a pub.
She rebuffed his advances.
When they went back to her house with a group, he tried to get into bed with her.
He was asked to leave, only to return when the woman was alone.
She used a knife to get him out of the house, only for him to come back again and she fled outside to hide.
On October 29, he tried to sexually attack a third woman in her bed as she slept, but was thrown out of her house at 1.30am. So he prowled the city centre streets looking for someone else to rape.
He followed a 21-year-old woman going home alone, grabbed her from behind, bundled her into his van, and drove her off to places where they could not been seen, in the Hungate development area and in a loading bay off James Street, and finally out of York towards Kirkham Priory.
Despite being terrified he would kill her, she managed to persuade him to take him back to York.
When he stopped at traffic lights, she jumped out and fled.
Her action in immediately contacting police led to his trial that proved his downfall.
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11193681.York_rapist_jailed_for_life_as_judge_brands_him__any_woman_s_worst_nightmare_/
