A double rapist, Nathan Cole, reciprocated the generosity of a stranger who let him into her Derby residence by perpetrating what a judge described as “a campaign of sexual violence” against her over the subsequent days. Derby Crown Court was informed that, on one occasion, Nathan Cole’s terrified victim was too fearful to vocalise her suffering while her adolescent grandson was asleep in the residence.
At the time, he was out on bail for raping a prior victim merely two months prior, when she had permitted him to stay on her sofa. In poignant victim impact statements presented to the court, both ladies recounted their attempts at suicide due to the traumatic experiences inflicted upon them by the 32-year-old perpetrator. Nathan Cole exited the video-link room at HMP Nottingham abruptly, before to discovering his destiny. Remarkably, he continues to refute his heinous and inhumane offences.
Recorder Simon King imposed a 20-year prison sentence in absentia, stating: “Nathan Cole violated the first victim in perhaps the most egregious manner by raping her and persistently denies the act.” The jury easily convicted him, and in my opinion, he was fully cognisant of his actions.
“(The second victim) took pity on him, believing he was homeless, invited him back to her home where she lived alone and she now regrets that extremely because what happened was he carried out a campaign of sexual violence and rape. She had invited a stranger into her own home and he abused her kindness.”
Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, said the first rape took place at the victim’s flat in Spondon in January last year. Nathan Cole said she had invited the defendant to stay over on the sofa but he entered her room, got into her bad and raped her.
The prosecutor said: “She describes how afterwards he was saying ‘what have I done?’ before asking her not to tell anyone. She called the police and he was arrested. When he was arrested he was heard to say ‘I am disgusting, I deserve to die’.”
In a victim impact statement she said: “I was screaming and begging for (him) to stop but (he) carried on. I don’t feel like the same person anymore, every time I shower I scrub and scrub myself because I feel dirty.”
Mr Kemp said two months later, while on bail, Nathan Cole and the second victim started talking in the smoking area outside accident and emergency at the Royal Derby Hospital and he told her he was homeless. He said she felt sorry for him and so invited him to stay overnight at her home.
The prosecutor said that night he raped her in her bed and then raped her twice more over the next two days. Mr Kemp said: “She told the defendant ‘no’ but she did not want to scream or shout as she did not want to wake her grandson and for him to find out what was happening to her. One one occasion he also bit her breasts and neck.”
In her victim impact statement, that woman, a mother and grandmother from Derby, told how she has tried to take her own life as a result of what happened to her. She said: “I was just trying to help him but this is what he did to me. I now feel like I live in a black hole. I have started drinking more to take away the memory of what happened to me. I cannot cope any more.”
Nathan Cole, of Stenson Road, denied any of the sexual activity happened and took his case to trial meaning both victims had to relive their ordeals giving evidence. A jury found him guilty of a number of counts of rape.
Roger Wilson, mitigating, said his client had never been in trouble for sexual offences before as had not previously been caught and had partly grown up in care.
Nathan Cole’s 20-year sentence is made up of 15 years custody plus a five-year extended sentence for dangerousness. It means he will not be eligible to apply for parole until two-thirds of the way through the custodial element, a period of 10 years.
Recorder King also handed the defendant a restraining order not to contact the first victim until further order and placed him on the sex offender register for life.
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