A ‘violent and dangerous’ man who sparked a police hunt across York and North Yorkshire has been jailed for raping a woman at his flat.
Clifford Church, 63, of no fixed address, was today (Thursday) sentenced at York Crown Court after pleading guilty to rape and assault.
On 7 August, Church lured the woman to his flat in Harrogate. He then locked her in and ordered her to do everything he demanded or he would hurt her.
When she refused to undress, he assaulted her, knocking her to the floor and threatened to continue using violence against her if she did not comply with what he wanted, before raping her.
The victim managed to escape his flat and ran into the corridor, frantically banging on doors and screaming for help. Church chased and grabbed her, but she was able to alert neighbours.
Afterwards, Church was caught on CCTV leaving the flat in a hurry, fully dressed and carrying a backpack.
Police launched an appeal to find him spanning York, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. They also released CCTV images of him shortly after the rape.
He was eventually arrested in Bradford on 19 September.
During police interviews, Church admitted that the victim had been at his flat but denied raping her, before refusing to answer further questions.
He was charged after a police investigation which included CCTV analysis, forensic work and witness interviews.
At York Crown Court today (5 March), Church was sentenced to life in prison and told he must serve a minimum of 12 years before being considered for release.
Church carried out the attack while on parole from a life sentence for the rape of a woman in Redcar.
Detective Constable Nicky Wareham of North Yorkshire Police’s safeguarding investigation team said: “I welcome the significant custodial sentence handed down today.
“Church is a dangerous and violent sexual predator who subjected an extremely vulnerable victim to a deeply traumatic ordeal.
“I want to commend the courage shown by the victim during this investigation. Her strength and willingness to support the investigation enabled us to gather the crucial evidence needed to secure this conviction and ensure Church is now behind bars, where he can no longer pose a threat to anyone.”
