Northern Ireland

Man jailed for rape of woman who was a sex worker

A Co Down man who raped a sex worker after binding her hands and feet with cable ties has been sentenced to eight years.

Ordering 49-year-old Gary Doak to spend half his sentence in jail and half under supervised licence, Newry Crown Court Judge Gordon Kerr QC also ordered him to stay on the police sex offenders register for life.

At an earlier hearing Doak, from Dickson Park in Seapatrick, outside Banbridge, entered guilty pleas to rape, unlawfully and injuriously imprisoning the victim, assaulting her occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault on March 9, 2017.

The court was told Doak contacted his victim through an online advert where she offered “a wide range of services, including BDSM, fetishise, role play and fantasy,” agreeing a fee of £200 for her to come to his home.

When she got there however, Doak “perpetrated a sustained and multi-faceted assault upon the complainant, both sexual and physical, with the defendant behaviour vacillating between aggressive and meek behaviour."

The court was told Doak “became threatening” and having taken her to the bedroom, “he bound her with cable ties around her neck, wrists and ankles.”

During his sentencing remarks, Judge Kerr listed numerous aggravating factors including there being “more than one sexual attack,” Doak being “aggressive and threatening” and the degradation of how the forced sex act culminated.

Turning to the various reports, Judge Kerr said while he assessed Doak was dangerous and is a “high risk of sexual reoffending,” he was not satisfied that he posed a “significant risk of causing serious harm” so heightened sentencing powers such as an extended sentence, did not come into play.

In addition to the jail term and sex offenders register, Judge Kerr also imposed a 12 year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.