‘Abhorrent and wicked’ Ashfield man jailed for raping underage girls
An "abhorrent and wicked" Ashfield man who raped underage girls and told one of his victims, "You shouldn't be crying, you should be enjoying it," has been locked up.
Keith Wain, aged 50, admitted multiple offences the week before a trial and received an extended sentence of 33 years in prison at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday.
On one occasion, when one of his victims tried to fend him off, he punched her and told her she was a bitch, said prosecutor David Eager.
Wain passed on a sexually-transmitted disease to his victims and denied everything when confronted by the police.
"He took everything away from me," one of the women said. "I wanted to kill myself most of the time. All he cared about was his own pleasure."
"Maybe someday you will understand what you did was wrong and you will hate yourself as much as I hate you,” she told him in a statement. “The world would be a better place without you."
Wain's victims reported suffering from depression, problems with eating and sleeping, as well as flashbacks, panic attacks, and incidents of self-harming, which have led to "endless doctor's appointments" and hours of therapy.
The court heard he has an "appalling criminal record", with 18 previous convictions for 193 offences, but none for sexual offences.
James Varley, mitigating, said the week before his trial Wain told him: "I don't want to put them through it. I know what I have done."
"He knows he will remain in custody until he is a very old man," Mr Varley said. "He is not a well man. Custody and ill health go hand in hand.
"He understands, to an extent, the effect he has had."
Judge Michael Auty KC said Wain could have spared his victims the ordeal of giving evidence in a trial but cowardice led him to bury his head in the sand.
"In effect you destroyed the lives of these bright, articulate and courageous women,” he said.
“You robbed them of their innocence. You robbed them of their childhood. You robbed them of their very identity.”
Classing him as "dangerous" he imposed an extended 33-year sentence: Wain, of Lime Tree Road, Hucknall, must serve two thirds of the 30-year prison sentence before he is eligible for parole and three years on licence.