ANGER AT 5-YEAR TERM FOR RAPIST
RELATIVES of a York rapist broke down in court and others reacted angrily as he was jailed for five years and placed on the sex offenders' register for life.Last month, a jury unanimously convicted David Glen Atkin, 42, of raping a young woman guest in his home.
Immediately after the sex attack she fled shoeless into the night until she reached York District Hospital.
The court heard the woman had suffered from depression.
The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Atkin he had raped a vulnerable woman.
"That was unforgiveable," the judge said.
Women relatives started crying in the public gallery at York Crown Court as the judge passed the five-year prison sentence and a male relative shouted out and left court as the judge put Atkin on the sex offenders' register for life.
The male relative returned to the courtroom shortly afterwards and again shouted before being ushered out by court staff.
Atkin, 42, of Fountayne Street, off Wigginton Road, had denied rape.
The jury heard he had drunk heavily in the hours leading up to the sex attack and the woman had been drinking separately.
Geraldine Kelly, for Atkin, told Judge Hoffman he continued to maintain his innocence.
She handed in ten references saying ten other people were equally willing to say good things about Atkin.
Both Atkin and his wife had been receiving medical treatment for depression since his arrest and conviction.
The offence was out of character.
Atkin told the jury he had no previous convictions.
But Simon Hickey, prosecuting, revealed that after the trial, Atkin told a probation officer that he had served a three-month custodial sentence as a youth.
The judge said the rapist had deliberately misled the jury, but apart from one incident, had led a blameless, hard-working life and would not rape again.
