A man raped a woman in a sickening attack in which he tied her up after hitting her with an axe, a court heard. Mark Yeates dragged the dazed woman upstairs after hitting her with an axe handle before taping her hands and feet together and raping her as she threw up and begged him to stop.
The 51-year-old warned his victim not to tell the police after the “truly horrific and brutal sexual attack” as he said "I'll get 10 years for this." But, he was handed an even longer sentence than this at a Preston Crown Court hearing yesterday, LancsLive reports.
Yeates arrived outside his victims house on the morning of February 28, according to prosecutor, Mark Goode, but she did not want to speak to him. She knew who he was but he smelt of alcohol and she asked him to go away.
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She got ready for work and left her house an hour later, but Yeates was waiting and jumped over the neighbour's fence and ambushed her. Yeates pleaded with her to let him in the house and she eventually said he could for five minutes.
Once in the stood face-to-face and the woman noticed that Yeates had both hands behind his back. Soon she felt a sudden pain after he had hit her with the handle of an axe he was hiding behind his back, knocking her to the ground and causing her to bleed.
He dragged her towards the stairs and tried to make her walk up them but she was too dazed from the blow. He pulled her up the stairs, forcing her onto the bed where she vomited in fear.
She felt like she was "used like a rag doll,” Mr Goode said. He continued: “She knew what he was going to do and was repeatedly saying ‘no’ to him”. Yeates warned her to be quiet and the woman recalled that feared she would be killed if she did not stop shouting."
He briefly stopped the horrifying attack to find the house keys and lock the front door and move her phone out of reach, before returning and raping the terrified woman. After the attack, the woman begged Yeates to let her go to the toilet as a result of the pain he had caused, at which point she secretly called 999 and contacted friends and family members for help.
Mr Goode said: “The complainant said she felt the defendant was loving doing this. In her words, ‘he were loving it, literally loving it’. Yeates then stood at the top of the stairs smoking a cigarette and the woman said at this point she wanted to kill him and considered pushing him down. Yeates told her he “couldn’t believe what he had done and knew he would get 10 years”.
Yeates left the home with a warning to her not to call the police, unaware of the fact that had already happened. When officers arrived, the woman was sitting wrapped in duvets physically shaking and with blood visible on her jeans.
Her friends soon arrived and showed the officer a picture of the man which was circulated to officers. He was arrested outside his home having spent time hiding in bushes and appeared to be wet with mud-stained clothes. Yeates told officers that he wouldn’t need a solicitor as he was “100% wrong”.
In a victim personal statement, the woman said she had always been a strong and independent woman but believed Yeates had broken her. She said no longer faced seeing people, did not feel safe in her own home, and was unable to talk about what had happened. She added: “My only hope is that one day I can move on with my life”.
Defending, Steven Swift, said Yeates had pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Mr Swift said Yeates had expressed regret and shame as soon as he was arrested and continued to do so.
Sentencing, Judge Ian Unsworth QC said he had no doubt that the attack was pre-planned and agreed with the woman’s belief that Yeates enjoyed what he was doing. He said: “You subjected her to a truly horrific and brutal sexual attack.
“You threatened to strike her again or gag her if she cried. She was in effect held as a prisoner in her own home. It’s where she should have felt safe but that could not have been further from the truth. You treated her and her body with utter contempt.”
The judge praised the victim’s courage in expressing the impact Yeates’s action had caused her, addressing the rapist to say “her bravery contrasts your cowardice”. Judge Unsworth listed reasons including a history of domestic abuse, the “brutal, ruthless and sustained nature of the attack”, and the fact was already subject to a restraining order against another woman at the time of the offence as to why he should be classified as a dangerous offender.
He handed Yeates a 12 year sentence with an additional eight years on licence. An indefinite restraining order was also put in place.
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