On-the-run rapist jailed over attempted sex attack

A convicted rapist who attacked a student at knife point while on day release from an open prison has been jailed for life.

Neil Trennan, 61, forced himself on the 19-year-old student after following into her home in Sheffield, where he later admitted he had planned to inflict serious bodily harm and commit a "violent rape".

Sheffield Crown Court heard Trennan had absconded from HMP North Sea Camp, an open prison in Lincolnshire, on the day of the attack.

Jailing him for a minimum of ten years, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said Trennan was a "sexual deviant ... aroused by sexual violence", describing it as "astonishing" he was allowed to leave the prison unsupervised.

The court heard Trennan had already been serving two life sentences, one for raping a woman in 1991 after breaking into her home and knocking her unconscious and a second imposed in 2002 when he escaped from custody while on day release and attacked a woman with a brick in a public toilet in Norwich.

Outlining the attack on 10 July, prosecutor Gordon Stables said Trennan had admitted following the woman "after seeing her in the street and targeted her… intending to commit a violent rape".

He said after the woman had gone into her home in the Nether Edge area of the city she heard her front door open and close and assumed it was her housemate who she had been expecting to arrive.

While changing for a shower she found Trennan in a spare bedroom, where he claimed to be "lost".

Stables said Trennan then said "sorry" to the woman before launching his attack, touching her, pulling out a kitchen knife and "trying to force her down to the floor".

He said the woman managed to fight him off, knocking the blade out of his hand before locking herself in another room.

Trennan then fled and spent three days on the run before he was arrested in York.

The court heard that Trennan had been convicted of a number of offences in the 1980s and 1990s, including three indecent assaults.

He had looked through bedroom windows, broken into women's homes on multiple occasions and chased a woman home, threatening her with a brick.

In 2015, he told a prison psychologist he had a sexual interest in violence and had enjoyed the "fear he is able to see in victims' eyes", the court heard.

In a victim impact statement, the woman told the court she thought she would be "irreparably damaged" by the incident.

She said she had struggled with her mental health since the attack and had considered taking her own life.

Speaking directly to Trennan, who attended the court by video link, she called him an "ungrateful, ignorant man".

"I am sorry that all this time you have spent behind bars has done nothing towards slight redemption for you," she said.

"I am sorry you have dedicated your life towards violence towards women.

"I am ending this with no empathy, remorse or compassion towards you."

The woman added that Trennan had "ruined her life for a period of time", but added: "I am so much more than the crime you tried to commit against me and always will be."

Michelle Colborne KC, defending, said there was "little to say" in terms of mitigation, but noted Trennan had not gone through with his "admitted intentions".

She said he had spent "the last 20 years trying to understand why he has offended in the way he has".

"He has asked me to say he is deeply sorry for his behaviour," she added.

Passing sentence, the judge said: "The facts of this case show a very serious history of sexual offending; an insatiable appetite for violence and sexual violence against women.

"No one is safe while you are at large in the community."

He expressed concern that Trennan had been transferred to an open prison, describing the decision as "extremely surprising".

"I have heard no adequate explanation why this decision was made, and this is something the Lord Chancellor will wish to investigate," he said.

"It is astonishing to me that you were permitted to leave prison on unsupervised day release."

He added that he "could not envisage" a future situation where it would be safe for Trennan to be released.

Trennan pleaded guilty to remaining unlawfully at large after recall to prison, possessing a blade, aggravated burglary and trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence.

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