HALIFAX MAN ETHAN HARE, 40, JAILED FOR RAPING WOMAN AFTER LURING HER INTO CAR
A vile Halifax rapist who lured a woman to his car to attack her as she walked home has been jailed.The woman was walking home after a night out in Huddersfield, when a sick twist of fate threw her into the path of Ethan Hare, 40, of Ashfield Drive, Halifax.
Leeds Crown Court heard on Friday (February 6) that the woman had fallen while walking to Mirfield and was asked by Hare if she wanted a lift home.
She accepted, and it was in his car that he attacked her twice.
Prosecutor Benjamin Bell told the court: "She was on Leeds Road when she fell over a metal wire on the pavement and she was pulled up by a man who was in a blue Ford Focus and asked if she wanted a lift home.
The man was not known to her.
They set off and he asked her how old she was and her name." "She noticed his trousers were already open." Hare went on to rape the woman twice, during which it was said she "let it happen out of fear".
It was after the attack that Hare dropped the woman off at Cooper Bridge petrol station, telling her "had to get back to his wife and children".
The woman bravely flagged down a taxi, the driver of which helped her and called the police.
Hare was arrested within 24 hours of his heinous crime and told officers he had picked the woman up and they had consensual sex.
Mr Bell said: "He said she approached his vehicle and was speaking to him and she had seven miles to walk when he offered her a lift and she started playing with him.
He said they had sex.
His defence was that it was consensual." Following a trial at the court in October last year, Hare was found guilty of two counts of rape.
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Mr Bell read out a summary of the woman's victim impact statement.
He said: "She says since her anxiety has worsened severely.
She has not been to Huddersfield since.
It has affected the relationship between her and her partner and she no longer enjoys physical affection.
She doesn't meet her friends anymore.
She has been unable to work full shifts for some time and doesn't like leaving the house." The court heard Hare had previous convictions for theft and motoring offences, but none of a sexual nature.
It was said two character references and a pre-sentence report had been handed to the court.
Mitigating, Mohammed Rafiq said: "He is anxious to know his future.
You have before you Ethan Hare, who is now 40 years of age...Conflict arises in this case as he says everything that happened between him and the complainant was consensual.
Of course her cause was that it wasn't, it was rape.
While he had his trial, the jury rejected his evidence and he was found guilty and obviously he has to be sentenced for that." The court heard that prior to the offences he fell to be sentenced for, Hare had led a "generally law-abiding life." Mr Rafiq added: "He had raised a family and had a relationship of 22 years and with the same partner had two children.
He had had a scrap business, supporting his family and working extremely hard and on some occasions going to car boot sales as well..." "It was one incident that was of a relatively short period of time.
For the complainant, it would have obviously been a different experience and a traumatic experience.
We don't argue against that." The court heard that Hare's parents, partner and children have been visiting him while he has been on remand "on an almost weekly basis." Mr Rafiq: "While it has been a difficult experience for his partner, she has informed him that she will stick by him through this very difficult period.
She is now supporting the children on her own, but is doing all that she can to ensure that they are not short of things and are not destitute.
He knows he is going away for a long period of time." Mrs Recorder Turner made Hare the subject of an extended sentence of 15 years made up of ten years in custody and an extended licence period of five years.
He will have to serve up to two-thirds of the 10 years in custody before going before the Parole Board who will determine if he is safe to be released.
The judge commended the taxi driver who helped the woman for his "quick work and actions." She told Hare: "You lured her into your vehicle under the pretence of a kindly act of a lift home.
You were plainly trawling for sexual activity.
I am satisfied you targeted someone you considered to be vulnerable.
She was somewhat disorientated, distressed, alone and drunk." Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Charlotte Pugh of the Kirklees District Adult Safeguarding Unit, said: “This was a dreadful incident in which Hare took advantage of an obviously vulnerable woman and then committed extremely serious sexual offences against her.
"He is without doubt a dangerous sexual predator who put his victim through a terrifying ordeal.
Her courage in coming forward on that night and reporting what took place, allowed us to rapidly start hunting for and arrest Hare within a few hours of the offence occurring.
"This dangerous man was charged and remanded in custody within 24 hours, meaning he has never been back on the streets from the moment he was first detained by officers."
