It is rare I place a non paedophile on these pages but this man was such a danger to females of all ages he had to be added

May 2001

Middlesbrough’s Red light rapist is jailed for 15 years

A rapist who terrorised a red light area was put behind bars for 15 years yesterday.

Paul Kennedy, 38, attacked four prostitutes at knife point and blindfolded two of them with tape.

Police issued warnings to the 150 vice girls in Middlesbrough not to get picked up by a dangerous punter in a red 4×4 vehicle.

One of the lorry driver’s victims, a 20-year-old blonde, told his trial at Teesside Crown Court: “I thought I was going to die. He seemed quite nice to start with but he turned nasty and put a knife to my throat. He put tape over my eyes and I felt him run the knife down my breast to my stomach.”

She added that Kennedy had sex with her and then demanded his £40 back before bundling her out of his Vauxhall Frontera.

Kennedy, a divorced man, of Manor Drive, Featherstone, Yorkshire, cruised Middlesbrough’s red light area on trips to Teesside to visit his two sons.

He ordered all four prostitutes not to look back at his jeep until they heard him sound the horn as he drove away.

But the boyfriend of his fourth victim took a note of his registration number and a locknife was found in his car when he was arrested driving along the M62.

It brought to an end a three-month campaign of terror by Kennedy, who claimed he had only picked up the last prostitute for straight sex.

He told the jury that it was his one and only time with a prostitute, to test whether he wanted to stay single or settle down and sleep only with his new partner.

He was convicted of robbing and raping two vice girls, indecently assaulting and attempting to rob another, and robbing a fourth.

Judge Peter Fox, QC, told Kennedy, who collapsed in the dock after the verdicts: “You subjected your victims to terrifying ordeals and indignities with masking tape and knife which you used to scar them, albeit temporarily, from neck to groin.

“You revealed a deep seated pathological perversion, antipathy and contempt towards them.

“Notwithstanding your previous good character you are, in my judgement, a long term danger to such vulnerable young women.”

Kennedy was also put on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Kennedy, originally from Hartlepool, was jailed for 15 years for the rapes and robberies, and ten years concurrently for the attempted robbery and indecent assault.

When released he will be under supervision for the rest of his sentence