Rapist jailed for 'wicked' vice girl attack
From the The Bolton News, first published Friday 3rd Aug 2007.
A VIOLENT rapist who attacked a prostitute four years ago after luring her into a dark alleyway is today starting a five-year jail term after being caught by DNA evidence.
Derek Craig Lewis turned on the vice girl, then aged 21, after agreeing to pay her for a sex act in Manchester Road in Bolton in February, 2002.
He grabbed her by the throat and wrestled her to the ground in the alley at the side of the Glynn Webb store before raping her three times.
For almost five years, Lewis, aged 29, of Lytton Street, Halliwell, thought he had got away with the rape of the woman - but was trapped when his DNA, taken when he was arrested for stealing a car steering wheel in October, 2006, matched samples taken from the rape scene.
Judge William Morris, sentencing Lewis yesterday at Bolton Crown Court, said: "The fact that your victim was a prostitute does not in any way diminish the seriousness of what you did."
Wayne Baker, prosecuting, said the woman had gone to work on the streets of Bolton at 1am on February 20, 2002, and was approached by Lewis near Orlando Bridge. He agreed to pay her for a sex act and took her to the alleyway where he turned violent and demanded her takings.
When she said she had no money, she was knocked to the ground and raped by Lewis, who threatened to beat her up unless she did as he said.
After the attack he told her to lie face down and count to 30. When she got up, he was gone.
She was left with cuts and bruises after being dragged to the ground during the attack. The court heard the woman's heroin and crack cocaine use increased following her ordeal, but she managed to give up sex work two years later.
Lewis pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to rape and was made to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.
Iain Simkin, defending, said the B&Q store assistant had never been in trouble with the police previously and was in a stable relationship with a long-term partner, with whom he had an eight-month-old boy.
"All the conversations I have had with my client have been wracked with contrition and guilt and he asks me today to apologise to the victim on his behalf," said Mr Simkin.
Det Con Rick Armstrong, of Bolton police, said: "What Derek Lewis did to the lady involved was, in any right person's mind, wicked.
"He preyed on, degraded and abused a vulnerable member of our society to satisfy his own perverted ends.
"The message must be made clear that the Greater Manchester Police will not let such matters simply melt into history and be forgotten.
"All tools at our disposal will be utilised to bring to justice those, like Lewis, who commit such atrocious crimes."
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