Jail over harrowing rape that ruined life of teenager

Paul Lupton forced his 19-year-old victim onto the ground and raped her after she left her friends on a night out to find a toilet and ended up relieving herself in a bin area behind the Warehouse club in Huddersfield.

Earlier in the night the 29-year-old had asked for a cigarette from the teenager, who was a stranger to him, and Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, QC, said Lupton had clearly identified her as an object of fascination.

The judge said, unless it was a complete coincidence, Lupton must have followed his victim and attacked her when she was in the quiet, secluded alleyway off Zetland Street last November.

At yesterday’s hearing at Bradford Crown Court it emerged that in 2004 Lupton, who was said to have been sniffing butane gas and living rough, was acquitted of putting his hand up the skirt of a 17-year-old girl.

In 2007 and 2008 there were two other allegations made against him by lone females, but Lupton was not charged with any offences.

Prosecutor Andrew Hatton said that although the complainant had suffered difficulties prior to the rape, since the attack she had been hospitalised and repeatedly self-harmed.

In a victim impact statement she said she did not think she would get over it.

“He has ruined my life and will probably be the death of me,” she stated.

Lupton, who was arrested in a Halifax street the day after the rape, initially denied any contact with the victim, but after his DNA was found to match a semen sample he claimed that the teenager had consented to sex with him.

He continued to deny the rape allegation but when the complainant attended at court last month for his trial he entered a guilty plea.

Lupton, who gave an address of Apsley Crescent, Manningham, Bradford, was said by his barrister, Neil Clark, to have used butane gas after suffering a tragic childhood.

Mr Clark said his client was under the influence of the gas on the night of the attack.

Judge Durham Hall described the circumstances of the rape as “chilling, harrowing and aggravated”.

The judge said the victim of Lupton’s crime had been brave enough to make a complaint but the effect upon her had been ruinous.

The judge said Lupton had heaped ordeal upon ordeal for the complainant by claiming consent and taking the matter to trial, but he accepted that his guilty plea had spared her the “final torture” of giving evidence.

Under the terms of the 16-year extended sentence Lupton will serve eight years behind bars, but following his release from prison he will be subject to rigorous licence conditions for the remainder of the term.

The judge also ordered Lupton to register as a sex offender for life and he will also be subject to an indefinite sexual offences prevention order.

Det Chief Insp Lisa Griffin of West Yorkshire Police said afterwards: “The victim had enjoyed an evening out in Huddersfield celebrating her 19th birthday with friends when she was attacked and raped. Despite the terrible trauma she was brave enough to attend Bradford Crown Court and was willing to recount what was a highly distressing ordeal.”