Jail for mobile-phone rape

The first attack was heard on an answerphone

A man who raped two women in separate attacks - one of which was accidently recorded on a telephone answering machine - has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years.

Andrew Crighton, 37, from Pembrokeshire, west Wales, denied both charges, which included attacking a friend's wife in her own bed as her husband was sleeping downstairs.

I pressed the speed dial button and called my friend - but he knocked it out of my hand

Crighton's first rape victim

But he was convicted by a jury at Swansea Crown Court after they heard how the sounds of his first assault was recorded as his victim tried to use her mobile phone and his second rape left incriminating DNA evidence.

Judge Gerald Price jailed him for four years for each rape and a further six months for an earlier escape from custody.

The court heard the steel erector's first attack was captured on an answerphone because his victim, who sobbed throughout her evidence, pressed a speed-dial button as she was being assaulted.

Crighton, of Sutton, Haverfordwest, knocked the mobile out of her hand but that did not break the line connection and the tape recorded her pleading him not to carry out the attack.

"Forceful"

The person who she had called did not play the message until the next day.

The victim said: "He pulled me into the hallway and pushed me onto the floor.

"I was lying on my stomach and I could feel something in my back. He said it was a knife and showed it to me. He was very forceful.

"I tried to get help by using my mobile phone in my fleece pocket. He was coming up behind me, trying to grab hold of me.

"I pressed the speed dial button and called my friend. But he knocked it out of my hand. I did not know if the call had got through. I did not speak into it."

Party

She described how Crighton pushed her onto a settee and raped her twice.

Patrick Griffiths, prosecuting, said the second victim was a married mother-of-four who was attacked in her own bed after a party.

Mr Griffiths said, "When the woman went to bed her husband was asleep downstairs in a chair. The defendant and the other visitors were also there watching a film.

"The defendant went upstairs saying he was going to the toilet but went into the bedroom of the woman and her husband.

"She was asleep when he got into her bed but she awoke to feel him put his hand on her stomach. She believed it was her husband."

DNA samples

He said the pair began to have sex until the woman realised it was not her husband.

"She then hit him and told him in no uncertain terms to get out.

"She was very upset about what happened and later made a formal complaint to the police."

The jury heard that DNA samples found on Crighton's clothing matched those of his victim.

Crighton's defence claimed the second victim had consented to sex with him at the party and that the earlier attack had not taken place.