Record details
Keane Owen, 37, of Equity Road, Enderby, has been jailed as a dangerous offender for a violent rape and prolonged attack on a young woman in her own home while her children were upstairs in bed.
Leicester Crown Court heard that the attack took place on 3 April this year. Owen slapped, punched and strangled the victim, pulled out a chunk of her hair, and forced her to perform a sex act on him. When she bit him, he subjected her to further violence. During one episode of strangulation she “came close to passing out” and “she was terrified,” prosecutor Francis McGrath KC told the court.
The attack ended only when the woman shouted upstairs to her children for help and Owen fled. He was arrested the following day and has been in custody ever since.
Owen denied the offences and pleaded not guilty to rape, assault by penetration, criminal damage (smashing the woman’s phone), intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. A jury unanimously convicted him of all charges.
In her victim statement, read in part by the prosecutor after she broke down in tears, the woman said: “I have to fight every day to rebuild my life. I don’t know if I will ever recover from this.” She described lasting damage to her ear and neck and said she now feels “unsafe around men.”
Judge Keith Raynor told Owen: “I am sure you have caused [the victim] severe psychological harm. There was violence within the context of the rape and she was certainly vulnerable. It was in her home and there was the presence of her children.” He noted the deliberate degradation of the victim and said only an extended sentence would adequately protect the public.
Owen received a 15-year extended sentence. He must serve a minimum of 10 years in custody before the Parole Board can consider release; if not released earlier, he will be freed at the end of the 15 years but remain on licence for a further two years and liable to recall. The court also imposed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and an indefinite restraining order prohibiting any contact with the victim.
