Raymond Harrison A rapist who abused two women more than 40 years ago has been described as a "monster" and "cowardly creature". Raymond Harrison, 73, was working as a farmer in Keswick, Cumbria, when he became to know his two victims, who he groomed with sweets and cigarettes. He was handed a year prison sentence in but his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal. He was convicted of 13 sexual assault charges, including raping a girl, at a retrial at Carlisle Crown Court and was jailed for 14 years and 61 days.
Jurors heard how in around the turn of the s, Harrison touched the girls sexually when he was alone with them. The prosecution described how he first raped one girl in a garage after pinning her to a stone wall and continued the abuse for many months. He continued to rape her multiple times during the course of many months. The court also heard Harrison indecently assaulted a second girl by kissing and putting his tongue in her mouth and by touching her intimately under her clothing.
Neither girl felt they could initially complain but eventually made statements to the police in He has destroyed my life and any sense of normality.
The woman Harrison indecently assaulted, said she would have once listened to a "heartfelt apology" and for him to help for himself. After the conviction was overturned the following year, Harrison was the subject of a retrial at Carlisle Crown Court in The jury could not reach a verdict on 10 additional charges, which then became the subject of the trial held this month.
He denied four charges of rape of a girl, two charges of indecency with the same child - who the jury concluded he indecently assaulted - and four indecent assault charges relating to the second girl.
