Christopher Scott pleads guilty to attempted rape

The Channel 4 drama Consent prompted an 11th hour change of heart from Christopher Scott who pleaded guilty to two charges of attempted rape.

Today the 23-year-old was beginning a life sentence for the brutal assault on a woman in a toilet at the Evil Eye bar in Stonegate, York.

The court heard the attack happened last summer while Scott was living on licence at a controversial York probation hostel - Southview, in Boroughbridge Road - having been released months earlier from a jail sentence for rape in 2003.

North Yorkshire Probation Board said that when high-risk offenders were released into the community, as had to happen by law, it took every possible measure to ensure that the public and victims were protected.

TV drama prompts rapist's change of heart

A CONVICTED rapist launched a brutal sexual assault on a woman in a bar while he was living at York's controversial probation hostel.

Christopher Ernest Scott, 23, was jailed for life yesterday after admitting two charges of attempted rape for the day-time attack in a toilet at Evil Eye, in Stonegate.

He had been due to stand trial but changed his plea to guilty at the 11th hour after watching the Channel 4 programme Consent, which dramatised a rape trial and was screened on Sunday night.

His barrister, Taryn Turner, said he did not want to put his victim through the same ordeal.

York Crown Court was told Scott was staying at the Southview Hostel, in Boroughbridge Road, York, at the time of the incident on August 7 after being released from prison on licence, having been jailed in 2004 for raping a woman in York.

Sentencing him to life, with a minimum term of five years, Judge Paul Hoffman said he should not be considered for parole for a much longer period.

"I believe you are likely to remain a very real danger to women in the indefinite future. The only reason why the attempt was not translated into the full offence is solely due to the victim's courageous struggle."

The court heard how Scott had been drinking since 11.30am with one of his girlfriends and her father on the day of the attack.

They moved on to the Evil Eye bar where his victim, a Thai woman, was eating her lunch with a friend.

While there, Scott asked his girlfriend if they could have sex that day but she refused. When the woman went to the toilet at 2.45pm, Scott followed her.

Geraldine Kelly, prosecuting, said: "He grabbed her from behind and pushed her into the toilet cubicle."

He then locked the door.

"He threatened her and said he would cut her head off," Miss Kelly said. "He moved his fingers across his throat as if to indicate he would slit her throat."

Scott put his hand over her mouth when the woman started to scream for help and fight back, and banged her head against the toilet.

"He told her that he had a knife in his hand behind his back and said he would kill her if she screamed," Miss Kelly said. He then tried to rape her.

The bar's manager heard the commotion and went to investigate, but was told by Scott everything was fine.

Scott's girlfriend and her father eventually came to see why Scott was taking so long.

He eventually emerged and ran off, leaving his victim crying, with her head in her hands, on the toilet.

Miss Kelly said when they caught up with him, Scott punched his girlfriend's father and said he "had to get out of town".

The victim suffered bruising to her body and could not work for three to five weeks afterwards.

"She totally lost her self-confidence and it took some five months to put that right," Miss Kelly said.

"Even now, if she sees somebody who looks like her attacker, even in clothing from behind, she becomes affected."

She said the woman's relationship with her husband had also been affected.

The court heard Scott had previously been convicted for a rape of a woman he had met on a night out in York in July, 2003.

He was released after two years in April last year, and was on licence at a bail hostel when he committed his latest crime.

Mrs Turner, mitigating, said that Scott claimed to have no recollection of the attack because he was drunk and on drugs. She said he had been a regular user of cocaine after being dishonourably discharged from the Royal Scots Dragoons Guards for drug offences six years ago.

But he claimed he was bullied by fellow soldiers because his father was a high-ranking army officer.

"Since then, his father has washed his hands of the defendant. He has no contact with his mother and his brother fell victim to suicide," Mrs Turner said.

Day-time attack followed rape jail term

CHRISTOPHER SCOTT'S day-time attack on a woman in York's Evil Eye bar came less than four months after he was freed from a jail term for a previous rape.

He had served two years of a four-year sentence when he was released on licence on April 13, 2006.

The court heard Scott had met a woman who asked him where she could buy cocaine while on a night out in York bar on July 18, 2003. He said he could pick some up from a dealer and got her to follow him. Scott said they would get a taxi to pick it up but instead he took her to a lay-by near the bar and went to a grassed area behind a hedge.

He put his hand over her mouth and raped her while she was asking him to stop.

She managed to get away, but he ran after her and took her back to the same spot and said: "What have I done to you?"

He pleaded guilty to rape at a trial on March 4, 2004, but claimed the woman had consented to some of the activity.

Scott also had previous convictions dating from 1997 including driving offences and a prison spell in 2001 for burglary with intent to steal.

Probation statement

NORTH Yorkshire Probation Board issued this statement in the wake of Scott's sentencing at York Crown Court: "North Yorkshire Probation Area can confirm that for a short period Christopher Ernest Scott was living at Southview approved premise as part of his licence condition; during which time he committed a serious offence.

"As Mr Scott had breached the requirements of his licence conditions, he had his licence revoked and was immediately returned to prison.

"When high-risk offenders are released into the community, as they have to be by law, we take every possible measure to ensure the public and victims are protected. Approved premises form an important part of this system and provide an enhanced level of supervision for certain offenders.

"Managing offenders in approved premises, where they can be closely supervised and monitored, is the safest, most controlled accommodation option available and is significantly safer and more effective than allowing potentially high risk offenders dispersing into the community.

"All offenders are closely supervised and they are expected to comply with hostel rules and to be in the hostel at certain times. As with all approved premises, Christopher Scott was able to leave the hostel during the day, but was subject to an 11pm curfew. However, approved premises are not prison and no approved premise offers 24-hour a day supervision as this is not what they are required to do."

Chief officer Pete Brown said: "Public protection is always our highest priority, and although it is very rare for offenders to commit a serious offence in the community, every case where this happens is one too many.

"In line with our public duty, we do everything we reasonably can within existing resources to reduce the risk posed by offenders. I am confident that the use of approved premises does not place residents at an increased risk of harm, but actually improves our ability to protect the public.

"The fact that we are watching all these offenders so closely, on the public's behalf, is part of their punishment. However, it is impossible to eliminate risk altogether, and the offender must ultimately shoulder responsibility for his actions."

The hostel at the centre of Scott controversy

THIS is not the first time that a convicted offender has committed a serious offence while on licence at York's controversial Southview probation hostel.

Kenneth Milroy, 52, was staying at the hostel after serving nine years of a life sentence for murdering his wife, Kathleen Milroy, when he stabbed fiancé Lynne Bell as she sunbathed in her garden.

Ms Bell was attacked by Milroy shortly after she dumped him by text message in 2004 because she was too afraid to call off the engagement face to face.

Milroy travelled to her Gateshead home and stabbed her in the back, despite being banned from entering the town because a number of people there wanted protection from him.

In the same year The Press told how a convicted sex offender living at the hostel was caught talking to local children, despite being banned from making contact with youngsters.

Richard Freshwater's sex offender order was intended to prevent him grooming children for sex acts.

But Freshwater, 25, broke the ban five times, speaking to a group of ten- and 11-year-old boys by the nearby River Ouse in Clifton. He was sent back to jail for 21 months for breaking the order.

A storm of protest from worried neighbours

A STORM of protest blew up in September, 2002, when The Press revealed that serious offenders such as convicted paedophiles and rapists could be living at Southview Hostel.

The community had not been told about its change from a bail hostel into an "all-purpose" hostel, whose residents could be serving sentences for crimes such as child sex offences, rape or murder. The facility, which is close to Poppleton Road Primary School, formerly housed only people awaiting trial or sentence.

Worried local parents escorted their children to school in the aftermath of our revelations - and demanded the Probation Service hold a public meeting to allay safety fears.

Weeks later, a packed meeting was held at Poppleton Road Memorial Hall, where senior probation service representatives, police, councillors and York MP Hugh Bayley listened to residents' worries.

Assurances were given that new rules could be introduced including tighter curfews on possible sex offenders.

Mr Bayley later raised the issue on residents' behalf with Prisons and Probation Minister Hilary Benn.