NO LET-OFF FOR KNIFE RAPIST
A MAN jailed for life for an horrific rape, this week failed in an Appeal Court bid to cut the minimum number of years he must spend behind bars.Andrew Hughes, aged 36, of Cheyney Walk, Crewe was handed the life sentence at Chester Crown Court last year after he pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, sexual assault, causing actual bodily harm and theft.
He was ordered to serve at least eight years in jail - the equivalent of a conventional 16-year prison sentence - before he could even apply for parole.
On Tuesday Lord Justice Moses, sitting with Mr Justice Tugendhat and Judge David Paget QC at the Appeal Court in London, refused to cut that minimum term - dismissing argument it was too harsh.
On May 20 2005, at about 1.30am, Hughes targeted a lone woman as she walked home from a night out.
He grabbed her off the street by the throat and said, "do not make a noise, I have a knife".
He pulled his terrified victim into a side street and held the knife against her throat, telling her: "You know what I want, take all your clothes off".
She asked him not to hurt her and offered him her handbag, but Hughes continued his attack and the woman believed she was going to be raped.
But her screams attracted two passers-by who came to her rescue.
Hughes fled.
Half an hour later, Hughes approached another lone woman and apprehended her as she got out of a taxi.
He grabbed her and punched her in the face.
One blow struck her in the mouth and another on her forehead.
He put his hand over the woman's mouth and said, "Bitch, stop".
The woman bit Hughes' hand and, as he recoiled in pain, she made good her escape.
The most serious of Hughes' catalogue of offences occurred two days later, however, when he broke into a 32-year-old woman's home.
Once inside, he subjected her to a range of appalling indignities before finally forcing her to twice perform a sex act on him.
He fled with valuables from her home.
He was arrested the following day and immediately admitted what he had done.
Lawyers on his behalf today argued the minimum term set was simply too long - given his early guilty plea, which spared the victims the ordeal of testifying in court.
But, refusing the application, Lord Justice Moses said the trial judge had described Hughes as "a danger to women".
He concluded: "In all the circumstances, we do not think that the starting point taken by the sentencing judge was beyond the guidelines." "We refuse the application."
