'Dangerous' Carlisle man jailed for attack on woman in his home
A “dangerous” Carlisle man who made a chilling threat to kill a female visitor to his home while armed with a knife as he attacked and falsely imprisoned her as part of a rape bid has been jailed for seven years.
The woman went with a friend to Dean Haughan’s city bedsit on the night of 12th May last year. There was drinking and cocaine-taking before an argument led to 31-year-old Haughan aggressively and forcibly ejecting the friend.
Thereafter the intoxicated woman remained and next remembered waking up in his bed the following morning with serious injuries to her face, leg and bruising across her body.
Shocking footage from a CCTV camera covering the landing outside his flat showed the woman being subjected to a violent and prolonged ordeal by Haughan.
Eight separate video clips played to a Carlisle Crown Court jury showed Haughan and the woman in that area, she being partially clothed and he being completely naked in parts of the footage.
At one stage, Haughan approached the woman with a knife hidden behind his back, before he kicked her to the body and pointed the blade towards her head or throat area. She was also dragged back into the flat and he later struck her to the ground.
A prosecutor spoke of the woman being “clearly terrified”, although she remembered little of what had happened. “I’ve gone. Just blank,” she told police of memory loss. “I went in the house all right and then came out not all right.” In an impact statement she described no longer living the happy and carefree lifestyle she previously did; had lost confidence and her sense of independence.
Meanwhile the woman’s friend told the jury she returned to the bedsit hours later and found her injured with blood “all over” the floor and bed. The friend said: “She was like a shell. It was like she wasn’t there.”
Haughan, previously of Stonegarth, also had little recollection of the offending, and was described as being “shocked” and “disgusted” having viewed the CCTV. He denied charges of false imprisonment and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence, but was convicted by the jury. He had previously admitted actual bodily harm assault, making a threat to kill and assault on the friend, and was said to have led a “chaotic and troubled life”.
Jailing Haughan, Judge Nicholas Barker was satisfied the defendant had wanted to rape the woman. “This was, I find to be, a sustained, violent, sexually motivated attack involving threats with knives, involving false imprisonment and involving assault,” he said.
Judge Barker concluded Haughan was a “dangerous” offender and ordered him to serve an extended two-year licence period. He must also sign the sex offenders’ register for life.