Rapist jailed for 13 years (From Warrington Guardian)

Former soldier from Great Sankey jailed for 13 years

7:30am Thursday 2nd August 2012 in News

William Nelson

A FORMER soldier from Great Sankey has been jailed for 13 years after raping a 21-year-old man and sexually abusing his victim’s girlfriend.

William Nelson, of Burtonwood Road, was sentenced at Warrington Crown Court on Friday.

The 53-year-old pleaded guilty to abusing his male victim for five years, before raping him on around five occasions from the age of 19.

He also admitted numerous other ‘devastating’ sexual attacks on the man, and sexually assaulting his victim’s 25-year-old girlfriend.

Prosecuting, Simon Parry described how Nelson, who served 10 years in Northern Ireland with the Royal Artillery, would also film the two having sex with his mobile phone before abusing them both.

Nelson also contacted the woman on Facebook telling her he wanted to watch her have sex.

Judge Nicholas Woodward said: “The particular concern here is that both of the victims come from loving, caring families.

One of the most damaging features of this case isn’t just the impact on the victims but the profound impact on those who care about them.”

The rapes came to light on March 31 this year when the woman victim’s mother heard her talking on the phone to her boyfriend.

He asked her if she felt sick, the court heard, and when she asked her daughter why, she described how Nelson had touched her sexually.

In April the male victim also told his family that he had been raped.

The police were called and Nelson was arrested on April 4 but denied any wrongdoing.

Images of the catalogue of abuse were then recovered from his laptop and during a second police interview he admitted sexual touching but continued to deny rape.

He eventually pleaded guilty to the charge and was jailed last week for a range of offences including rape, sexual touching and voyeurism.

The defendant, who has no previous convictions, was also banned from having any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16.

Defending, Gareth Roberts said he now wanted to ‘put this behind him’ and ‘rebuild his life’.

Relatives of the victims present in court cried throughout the hearing.

As Nelson was taken down they shouted ‘beast’ and ‘rot in hell’.