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A RAPIST who used a mobile phone to film himself raping a teenage girl was jailed for 14 years yesterday.
Jon Leaver, 23, recorded himself attacking his young victim and intended to send the images to his friends later.
CCTV footage which helped to convict Leaver revealed an assault of such sadistic violence that his 19-year-old victim was left with her jaw broken in two places.
Judge David Boulton said: “These offences are particularly grave, horrendous and abhorrent causing the height of violent violation, fear and distress and very serious physical injury to the victim. It may well be impossible for her to come to terms with the trauma.”
Leaver, of Atherton, Lancashire, was found guilty of rape and grievous bodily harm at an earlier hearing.
During a five-day trial last month the jury was told how Leaver began chatting to the teenager on February 19 this year at Barbarellas nightclub in Leigh, Lancashire.
Leaver complemented her on a tattoo before lifting his shirt to reveal a large tattoo on his stomach featuring the disfigured face of a woman.
The couple kissed inside the club before leaving around 2am ostensibly in search a taxi home. Instead he led the woman to a deserted bus station.
He pushed the victim against a wall and photographed himself performing a sex act upon her. His behaviour became increasingly violent, pulling her head back by her hair and gripping her by the throat. Leaver ignored her pleas for him to stop. The woman told the jury at Liverpool Crown Court: “I was trying to push him away from me but it was no use. I thought I was going to die. I was not agreeing to sex.”
Leaver threw his victim to the ground. When she tried to resist his demands he hit her in the face, knocking her unconscious. A security guard monitoring the CCTV footage tried to disturb the rapist by lifting a nearby barrier. Leaver carried his unconscious victim to a back street where he punched her in the face before fleeing. A passer-by went to her rescue after he heard her whimpers.
She was later treated for a broken jaw, two fractured cheek bones, four broken teeth and multiple bruising. She had to have a permanent metal plate inserted into her jaw and is still receiving psychiatric treatment.
The court was told that Leaver, who has a previous conviction for indecent exposure, hit her so hard that he broke two of his own fingers. He claimed that the woman had consented to “rough sex”.
Judge Boulton told Leaver: “I consider you are extremely dangerous to women. The violence that you used was extreme to the point of being sadistic. You are a man with no conscience and remain vague, dismissive and evasive about what you actually did”.
Leaver’s victim said in a statement that she is now fearful of leaving her home.
She said: “I still have fears about stepping outside the house on my own. I am trying my best to get on with my life but it is difficult and obviously I have a constant reminder with the injuries I have suffered.”
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