November 2010

Jailed for life: The serial rapist who targeted children

A dangerous serial sex attacker has been jailed for life for raping a nine-year-old girl.

Serial sex offender William Lyon, 33, also known as Billy Sartain, raped the girl in 1999, when she stopped to help him repair a puncture to his bike in east Hull.

He later went on to rape a woman at knifepoint and indecently assault other youngsters.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said he has “little doubt” Lyon will continue to target young girls and will never be safe to be released.

The mother of the girl, now aged 20, who cannot be named for legal reasons, described Lyon as an “animal”.

The 39-year-old said: “He is a predator and has targeted young children.

“He has ruined so many lives. People like him should be killed.

“I don’t see why we should pay our taxes for him to live in prison.

“I think he’s done it to lots of children and I hope they will come forward, too.”

Lyon, of Machell Street, city centre, Hull, paid the girl £5 after attacking her, and told her not to tell anyone.

A year later, Lyon then held a knife to a woman’s throat and raped her in Coltman Street, west Hull.

He then indecently assaulted a 14-year-old girl on a bus in Hull in the same year.

In 2001, Lyon was jailed for those two subsequent attacks.

He was sentenced to nine years at Sheffield Crown Court, and was released in May last year.

When the woman he’d raped 11 years ago, when she was a child, heard of his release from jail, she reported her attack to the police.

Her mother said: “I’m so proud my daughter had the courage to come forward and was brave enough to come to court.

“She said she wanted to save other little girls from him.

“The judge has done us proud.

“He has saved other little girls from being harmed by him.”

Lyon pleaded guilty to rape at Hull Crown Court, but even at the last moment he tried to change his plea, claiming his victim was motivated by money.

However, the judge refused to allow him to change his plea, after hearing evidence that Lyon had confessed his crimes to a prison cell-mate.

Judge Richardson said: “You raped that young girl in outrageous circumstances.

“You are a very dangerous individual.

“I have very little doubt you will commit other very serious sexual crimes if you are ever released.

“I cannot envisage when it would ever be safe to release you.”

“I’m entirely satisfied you have a grossly abnormal personality and, if at large, you are likely to remain a danger to women for an indefinite period.”

He will be eligible to apply for parole in five years, but will not be released until the Parole Board is satisfied he no longer poses a risk to the public.

Lyon committed his first sex offences at the age of 16, when he committed three indecent assaults in Hull.

Detective Constable Gemma Rule, of Humberside Police’s public protection team, said: “The victim has shown great bravery in coming forward.

“When she realised he had been released, she came forward because she didn’t want anyone else to be hurt.”