A CHALLENGE has been made over the ten-year jail sentence as Bradford police officer received after being found guilty of rape.

West Yorkshire Police Sergeant Ben Lister, 36, was found guilty of a "disgusting sexual assault" on a woman after a night out more than five years ago.

Lister had denied the offence, claiming his victim consented to the intercourse, but he was found guilty of rape and assault by penetration by a jury at Bradford Crown Court earlier this month.

Now a bid has been made for the length of the term to be reviewed under a scheme for sentences considered to be "unduly lenient".

The Attorney General's office will review the sentence and consider whether ten years is too low, and could refer the case to the Court of Appeal to be reconsidered.

Lister's sentence could then be increased as a result.

He was found to have raped the woman at a mutual friend’s house following a night out drinking together in a group on August Bank Holiday weekend 2016.

His vile attack led to his victim becoming pregnant, but Lister denied knowing he had fathered the woman’s child.

Bradford Crown Court heard Lister raped his “paralytically drunk” victim - many years his junior - as she “drifted in and out of consciousness” at a friend's house.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Bradford Crown CourtBradford Crown Court

When she asked if they'd had intercourse he lied, telling her he'd “only performed oral sex”.

He said the woman was later “in denial” that the baby had resulted from a rape, but a DNA test proved Lister was “18 million” times more likely to be the dad than not.

The challenge comes as two Bradford sentences have been increased in recent weeks.

Frankie Smith, the mother of Star Hobson, has had her sentence for allowing the death of her baby daughter extended by four years.

And Christopher Windle, 21, who fled the scene of a crash on Wakefield Road after colliding with two vehicles and killing his passenger saw his sentence increased.

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