RAPIST JAILED FOR MORE THAN 17 YEARS AFTER ATTACKS ON TWO VULNERABLE WOMEN
A "monster" who raped two women in their own homes has been jailed.Adam Shellard, 27, won't be eligible for parole until 2037 after his attacks, which both involved vulnerable victims who were raped multiple times - one of them while she slept.
He appeared at Leicester Crown Court for sentencing on Friday (October 31) after being found guilty by a jury of three rapes and two other sexual offences against his first victim.
He was also found guilty of using controlling or coercive behaviour - including violence and strangulation - against her, as well as committing a racially-aggravated threatening behaviour offence against her four-year-old daughter.
Shellard had threatened to kick the youngster down the stairs, using a racist term to describe her.
Against his second victim he was found guilty of three further counts of rape, which included offences against the vulnerable woman while she was sleeping at her home.
Judge Keith Raynor gave Shellard a sentence of 17 years and seven months, with a four-year extended licence due to Shellard's dangerousness.
He will have to serve two thirds of the sentence before he is even considered for parole - a period of more than 11 and a half years.
After his release he will remain on licence - being strictly monitored by the Probation Service - until 21 years and seven months from now.
In victim statements read out in court, one victim said: "The crime has had a huge, life-changing impact on me.
It has shattered my sense of safety and wellbeing.
"I ended up having to move out of my house where it happened.
Mentally and emotionally I'm suffering a lot.
I'm genuinely scared for my life." "I've become intensely afraid of letting anyone get close, thinking that anyone could do something terrible to me." The other victim said in her statement she was left hating herself, adding: "He made me feel like I didn't want to be on this earth.
"I can't explain the effect he can have on a person - he's a monster." Prosecutor James Bloomer KC told the court Shellard had targeted "particularly vulnerable victims".
Shellard had been represented by a barrister at his trial, during which he "deliberately sought to delay and or interfere with the case", the judge said.
But ahead of Friday's sentencing hearing his barrister withdrew from the case due to issues that weren't raised at the sentencing.
The judge said he would sentence Shellard without legal representation for the sake of the victims, one of whom was in court and the other who was watching the hearing via a video link.
The attacks by Shellard, of Bosworth Road, Measham, took place at the victims' homes in Leicestershire between 2015 and 2021.
The judge read out parts of a pre-sentence report by probation officer David Charlton who described Shellard - who never accepted his wrongdoing - as having a "high risk of harm" to women and children, who caused "physical, emotional and psychological harm" to his victims.
Speaking after the sentencing, DC Chris Sherwin said: "The victims in this case have shown so much strength during what has been an extremely difficult and long process.
They have waited five years to get justice, and their determination to see this through to the end has meant that a dangerous sex offender is now behind bars."
