A serial burglar carried out the “sadistic” rape of a mother and her teenage daughter five days after he was released early from prison.
Joshua Carney, 28, was jailed for life on Monday and told he would serve at least 10 years before he would be considered for parole after admitting offences including rape, assault and theft.
Carney had just been freed from prison where he had served half of an eight-year sentence for a series of burglaries in Cardiff when he carried out the attack on the mother and daughter in March.
He pushed his way into his victims’ home when the mother, who had been getting ready for work, opened her front door to investigate a noise outside, and he threatened to stab her. He attacked her and then assaulted her daughter, who had been asleep upstairs.
Ieuan Bennett, prosecuting, said: “This was a particularly degrading offence because it involved the mother being forced to watch her own daughter being raped and her daughter being forced to watch the rape of her mother.”
Bennett said Carney was hiding behind a container when the mother opened the door, and he asked her if she would call him a taxi.
The mother told police: “I knew as soon as I saw him there was danger.” She tried to close the door but Carney forced his way in, slammed her into a wall and locked the door behind him.
As he attacked her, the daughter dialled 999 from upstairs. She told the operator: “I can’t see her but I can hear her crying, I think he has stabbed her.” The mother begged him to leave her daughter alone but he went upstairs and attacked her too. Mother and daughter held hands as he raped the teenager. As Carney left, police arrived and arrested him.
Carney refused to be interviewed and prepared a written statement stating he had no memory of what happened. He was subsequently interviewed in his cell where he remained silent and under his blanket throughout. He later admitted all charges.
In victim impact statements, the mother and daughter each said they felt guilty about not being able to stop the attacks on the other.
The mother said she used to be a strong, independent woman. “But that has been turned upside down,” she said. Her daughter said she suffered from flashbacks and hallucinations and slept with a hammer under her pillow to try to make her feel safer.
Jailing Carney at Cardiff crown court, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said the fact that the mother and daughter were raped in front of each other was “deliberate and sadistic, and done to gratify your perverted sexual desires”. She told him: “You have a significant capacity for manipulative and predatory behaviour.”
Det Con Ian Booker, of South Wales police, said: “In Joshua Carney, we had an extremely dangerous individual. Both females have suffered severe shock and emotional trauma. It must have been absolutely terrifying for them and they have been extremely brave throughout this ordeal.”
Kelly Huggins, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Despite the violent and truly degrading acts Carney committed, the victims showed tremendous courage and clear thinking allowing really strong evidence to be gathered, which enabled the CPS to present a robust case leading to guilty pleas.”
