COVENTRY OFFENDER SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS FOR RAPE AND ASSAULT
Rapist Leon Forde was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman twice and indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl.The incident occurred in Coventry, and the court was shown leniency because the judge accepted that Forde's crimes were influenced by crack cocaine use.
Judge Marten Coates acknowledged that while he had contemplated a much longer sentence in 'double figures,' he ultimately settled on seven years for his conduct.
The court heard that Forde, aged 21 and a former Peugeot worker residing on George Robertson Close, had voluntarily entered a mandatory drug testing scheme while in prison, where he would be subjected to random tests up to three times a week.
It was also noted that he would have to join the sex offenders register upon release.
A psychiatric report concluded that Forde was not a danger to the public and that he was clean of drugs at the time of sentencing.
The judge commented, "I am very sorry that we meet in these circumstances.
You started out as a perfectly ordinary and decent young man, meeting a girl, getting married, and securing a job.
But, like so many that get into drugs, things went badly wrong." Forde's criminal acts included both rape and indecent assault, which were described as "a sustained course of appalling conduct that terrified two girls."
