A CONVICTED rapist has been jailed for four years for sexually molesting a teenage girl and abusing her again when she was a young woman.

Dennis Lavery, 65, was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of two offences of indecent assault in Ravenscliffe, Bradford, the first between 1979-1980 and the second in the mid 1990s.

Lavery, of Kingsdale Drive, Bolton, Bradford, had left his victim ‘in a dark place,’ the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said when sentencing him.

She was ‘utterly, totally and catastrophically traumatised’ when he sexually abused her on one occasion when she was in her mid-teens.

When he struck again 15 years later, it was ‘the final straw’ and the police were called.

The woman said in her victim personal statement read to the court that she did not know what to do, or how to deal with it, when Lavery molested her as a child.

She had since suffered depression and anxiety, chest pains, physical sickness and a terror of leaving her home.

“I felt dirty and ashamed,’ she said. “I felt guilty, although I know I was not to blame. This has affected the whole of my life.”

Lavery appeared at Bradford Crown Court on crutches.

His barrister, Robin Frieze, said he was in poor health, with a serious back problem that impaired his mobility and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

After the guilty verdicts were returned, the court was told that Lavery was imprisoned for 12 years in May 2008 for repeatedly raping a young woman in the 1990s.

Heavily-built Lavery attended his trial this week on crutches, leaning forward on them in the dock to dab his eyes after he was convicted.

Judge Durham Hall told the jury that Lavery was not present in court for the start of his trial because he had taken an overdose of pills and alcohol and been admitted to hospital.

After the proceedings began, he was arrested and brought to court.

The judge told Lavery: “This jury has seen through your denials and your lies.”

Lavery had shown a tendency over the years to sexually molest and paw females.

“The evidence against you was utterly compelling,” Judge Durham Hall said. The rape conviction demonstrated Lavery’s true character.

“You are probably still dangerous,”the judge added.