PERSISTENT RAPIST IS GIVEN LIFE
A 33-year-old man who raped a Bradford prostitute has become one of the first repeat offenders to be given a mandatory life sentence.After a Bradford Crown Court jury spent more than five hours yesterday considering their guilty verdict, they were told that Anthony McCormick had previously been jailed for two rapes and an attempted rape.
Prosecutor Timothy Stead said McCormick, of no fixed address but comes from Liverpool, was jailed for four years for rape in 1985 and in 1990 he received prison terms of 10 and 12 years respectively for rape and attempted rape.
Mr Stead revealed that the attempted rape involved a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was stalked by McCormick as she walked home in Lancaster.
McCormick also raped a 22-year-old woman when she was out jogging on a beach at Formby and received the 10-year sentence for that offence.
McCormick's latest victim was a 21-year-old prostitute who he met in the Thornton Road area of the city last November.
After making her go behind a block of flats with him, he told her he had a knife and raped her.
He was arrested after the prostitute alerted officers in a passing police van.
He denied the allegation of rape but was convicted after a three-day trial.
Mr Stead said the attack took place just a month after new legislation which is designed to deal with repeat offenders came into force last October.
Imposing the sentence, Judge Arthur Hutchinson QC told McCormick: "I don't know what it is in you that drives you to behave towards women the way you do.
But it is abundantly clear that you have been, and at your age, remain a source of considerable danger to any woman upon whom your eyes light." Although he was required by Parliament to impose the life sentence, Judge Hutchinson said he had no misgivings about doing so because women had to be protected.
Judge Hutchinson ordered that McCormick should serve at least five years before he could apply to the Parole Board, but said such an application should not be made with any confidence even then.
