Leyland sex offender jailed for further 10 years after raping a woman whilst on release from prison

Adam Stock was told by a judge he was close to getting a life sentence for the offence, which was the second time he had been convicted of rape.

Preston Crown Court heard Stock had been released in 2021 - halfway through an eight-year prison sentence for a series of 10 sex offences.

This time Judge Andrew Jefferies told him he would have to serve a minimum of two-thirds of the sentence before he could apply to the Parole Board for release and warned: “If you have not changed your attitude to women after that period then the Parole Board will not release you and you would have to serve the full 10 years.”

Stock, of Cumberland Avenue, Leyland, pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one of sexual assault on the woman. Both offences happened despite the victim refusing to have sex with him at her home – once in her bedroom and the other in the lounge. The sexual assault was witnessed by the woman’s young son who heard the pair arguing and came downstairs.

Both the victim and her child were left traumatised by what had happened, prosecuting counsel Tim Evans told Judge Jefferies. In the woman’s case she had suffered “severe psychological harm” as a result of what had happened.

In a victim impact statement, read out by Mr Evans, the woman said she had been left “completely and utterly broken” by the ordeal and had suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Since it happened it had affected her day-to-day life, she suffered from vivid flashbacks and struggled to get to sleep at night. When she did sleep she suffered from nightmares and regularly woke up crying and screaming.

“She says she will never trust anyone again, or believe anyone,” said Mr Evans. The woman, he said, had had suicidal thoughts and felt she had lost her identity and that her body had been stolen from her. She had since felt physically sick when near men.

“I don’t even recognise myself anymore,” she wrote in her statement. “I will never know what I did so wrong to him for him to abuse me and destroy me. I will forever be damaged and never be the same person again. My son witnessed something no son should ever have to go through. He is terrified. He has struggled at school.”

Mr Evans said the house where the offences happened no longer felt like home to the victim. He added that she kept seeing Stock’s face everywhere and she felt “a complete mess.” He was, said Mr Evans, “plainly a highly dangerous individual.”

Christian Cavanagh, defending, asked Judge Jefferies to take a “cautious approach” to sentencing and not impose a life term despite his previous record of sex crimes. He said in mitigation that Stock had pleaded guilty to the two offences, which spared the mother and son the ordeal of having to give evidence in a trial. Mr Cavanagh said Stock recognised the emotional effect the offences had had on the victim.

Judge Jefferies told Stock that he had refused to take “no” for an answer and raped the woman. Later he had again refused to take “no” for an answer and sexually assaulted her before her son came downstairs and intervened. “What is troubling me is it mirrors what I have read about your previous convictions.”

The judge ordered that Stock should serve an extended three-year licence period after he is eventually released from prison. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.