Man jailed for rape and kidnap

12 April 2012

A violent rapist allowed his freedom despite breaching a sex offenders' order six times has been jailed for life for the kidnap and rape of a teenage girl.

Alan Weston, 49, was jailed for 12 years in 1991 for breaking into the Sussex home of a young couple and raping the 26-year-old woman at gunpoint.

Weston, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, served less than eight years of that sentence before he was released on parole and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register.

He broke the rules six times - usually by failing to inform the authorities of new addresses - but was not jailed. He received a community punishment order from Stockport magistrates in 2003 and a two-year community rehabilitation order from Manchester Crown Court in 2004.

Weston remained under supervision by the authorities but they did not realise he was harbouring a fantasy about raping a teenage girl.

Last October he drove to Wrexham, North Wales, and snatched a 15-year-old girl at random off the streets as she walked home from a work experience placement.

Mold Crown Court heard how he bundled her into a van, forced her to undress at knifepoint, then raped her. He later tried to rape her again before eventually setting her free 15 hours later and 70 miles away at a disused farmhouse near Bangor.

He pleaded guilty to kidnap, rape and attempted rape, and was jailed for life on each count, with a minimum tariff of seven years.

Speaking after the case, police and Crown Prosecution Service chiefs defended the handling of Weston before the Wrexham rape.

Detective Superintendent Peter Chalinor, who led the North Wales Police investigation, said: "Save for 24 hour surveillance, there wasn't much more we could do. He was having these thoughts but there were no outward signs of what he was planning."

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