A VIOLENT sexual predator who dragged a teenager into a dark alley and repeatedly raped her has been put behind bars.

Adam Collier, who had previously molested a pensioner, was given an 18-year extended sentence for the attack in Burnley.

The defendant, 27, who is originally from Colne, preyed on his victims because they were vulnerable, a court heard.

Speaking after the sentencing, a public protection inspector said the case was one of the most traumatic his unit had dealt with.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Det Insp Steve Holgate said: “Collier is very much a violent predatory offender who targeted vulnerable people.

“This has had a huge impact on the victim. It was a really traumatic period in her life.

“We deal with a lot of incredibly serious incidents, but this case stands out to us because of the severity of the attack and the impact on the victim.”

Collier, who has also lived at addresses in Roberts Street, Nelson, and Dall Street, Burnley, was convicted of rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration following a trial at Burnley Crown Court in May this year .

But the jury remained deadlocked on other allegations relating to the teenager and a retrial took place at Preston Crown Court.

This week he was found guilty of two more rape charges and two offences of sexual assault. Jurors cleared him of one charge of assault by penetration.

Judge Jonathan Gibson jailed him for 14 years and he was also given a four-year extended period on licence for public protection.

Prosecutor Richard Haworth told jurors that Collier was a ‘sexual predator’ whose behaviour had not changed in the 10 years since his first serious conviction for molesting a 71-year-old woman in Nelson.

Before the 2004 attack on the pensioner, the defendant had been rejected by a number of girls before he pounced.

The barrister told the court that Collier became increasingly frustrated the night he came upon his 17-year-old victim outside the Union Exchange pub at around 2.20am on November 3 last year.

She had been refused entry into the pub because she was under-age and had become separated from her friends.

CCTV footage was shown to the jury of Collier having a brief conversation with the girl, in which it is alleged he claimed he could get her into the pub. But the bouncers refused and he said he would try to gain entry through the pub’s back door.

But he was then filmed leading her along Skelton Street, where she was dragged into a ginnel and pulled into a shed, where she was raped.

Mr Haworth said that Collier also made her perform a number of sex acts and at one point suggested that he had a knife.

Security cameras, a short time later, showed the girl emerging from the alleyway and walking unsteadily back up the street, where she immediately told her friends that she had been attacked.

Collier was arrested a short time later and insisted, when he was interviewed, that the sex had been consensual. He claimed that she ‘liked him’.

As well as the prison term, Collier was made to sign the sex offenders register for an indefinite period and also ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge.

After the hearing, DI Holgate praised the 17-year-old for her courage in giving evidence in court twice.

He said: “The victim has found the whole ordeal very difficult, but she has had an enormous amount of support from the police, her family and friends.

“When she got the verdict, it gave her real reassurance and she now feels for the first time that she is safe and she can now get on with her life.”