7:00pm Sunday 21st March 2010
By Sam Chadderton
A RAPIST who met his teenage victim on Facebook has been jailed indefinitely.
Lee Gregory, 23, of College Court, Accrington, raped her three times on her birthday, as well as sexually assaulting her and forcing her to commit sex acts.
Following the case, police welcomed the sentence and said it was a message for all women to beware of Gregory, who has a history of violence against his girlfriends.
Preston Sessions House was told Gregory initially used a false name and age when he first made contact with the girl on the social networking website.
Prosecutor Louise Whaites said the pair had a fast-moving relationship but Gregory became ‘violent, abusive and controlling’ towards her'.
Despite her protestations, he sexually assaulted her, then raped her, saying: “You’re just like the other girls I’ve been with.”
In a prolonged attack, he made threats to make her engage in sexual activity, bit her neck and raped her again.
Not moving from fear, the girl fell asleep.
When she woke, Gregory asked her if she had enjoyed the night before, told her he loved her, then raped her for a third time.
The court heard Gregory had a history of violence against partners and former partners.
He was sent to a Young Offenders Institute in 2006 for attacking the mother of one of his three children and her friend.
In October 2008 he was jailed for an attack on his girlfriend after she woke him while getting ready for work.
And a month later he was back at court in front of Judge Newell for assault occasioning actual bodily harm against another girlfriend.
Judge Simon Newell sentenced Gregory gave him seven years for the three counts of rape and three years for the other sexual assaults.
But he imposed an indefinite sentence which means he will only be released when he is not considered a danger.
Gregory will be subject to a lifetime licence on his eventual release, meaning he can be recalled to prison at any point. Judge Newell also put Gregory on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life, banned him from working with children for life and from contacting his victim.
For Gregory, Michael Brady, defending, described his client as a ‘misogynist’ who still maintained that the incident was ‘consensual’.
Ms Whaites, prosecuting, read from a victim impact statement from the victim who said the ordeal had driven her to a drugs overdose.
After the case, Detective Constable Sarah Hargreaves, of Accrington Public Protection Unit, branded Gregory a 'predatory sex offender' and a ‘danger to women’.
She said: “He would develop a relationship with his victim in order to charm them, gain their trust and dominate them.
"Using his control he would then proceed to physically assault and even rape one of his victims."
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