Chilling CCTV shows cocaine-fuelled rapist hunting for victims on night out
Share:
Chilling footage shows a knife-wielding rapist hunt for his victims before he was caught after one simple slip-up. Evil predator Stuart Thompson attacked three women in three hours in Manchester city centre, but was luckily tracked down after leaving his hat at the scene. The thug treated the women "like pieces of meat" and "less than human", forcing himself on them then putting them through the grief of a trial by denying his guilt.
But a jury saw through it, finding him guilty at Manchester crown court. The thug, branded a "dangerous sexual predator" by police, was jailed for life on Friday. Thompson, who had taken crack cocaine on the night of the attacks, had approached the women behind Piccadilly station soliciting them for sex in return for money, before producing a knife and raping them. He raped three women, and attempted to rape a fourth. He also robbed the fourth victim of her handbag and phone.
Greater Manchester Police revealed that a woolly hat left at the scene by the perpetrator had been swabbed, leading them to a hostel where Thompson had been staying at the time. Turning up at the address, officers spotted him wearing the same distinctive green jacket he was in on the CCTV footage.
A judge told Thompson he had targeted the women cynically believing that, as sex workers, they were less likely to go to the police or be believed. “You treated each of these women like pieces of meat, as less than human,” Judge Hilary Manley said.
“Your contempt for each of them was plainly evident throughout the trial and particularly when you gave evidence. I am wholly satisfied that you deliberately targeted sex workers as your victims, because you knew that you could get them isolated and alone in a quiet location in order to rape them, and also because you were cynically confident that they would be less likely to go to the police, and that even if they did find the courage and strength to do so, that they would be less likely to be believed.”.
