Raped after being offered ‘safe’ place

Attacker jailed after luring victim from club

A rapist repeatedly attacked his victim after luring her from a nightclub and plying her with drink.

Kieran Champion, 28, from Canterbury, tricked the woman into believing she had a safe place to stay for the night before subjecting her to the terrifying ordeal.

The predator has now been been jailed after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault following a trial at Canterbury Crown Court.

Devious Champion led the woman from a Margate venue to a property in Canterbury, leaving her isolated and lost.

After giving her whisky and coke, the fiend raped and sexually assaulted his terrified victim.

When she desperately cried out for him to stop, Champion made lurid and derisory remarks.

The horrified woman was able to scramble from his clutches when a police officer appeared outside the crime scene by

chance, jurors heard.

Champion was arrested the same day and gave a no comment police interview.

He then forced her to repeatedly re-live the terror in court - even after his DNA was discovered on his victim.

But a jury saw through his lies and convicted him unanimously on September 23.

The rapist, supported by his mother and friends in the public gallery, slumped and wept in the dock after the verdict was delivered.

Sharmila Salvi, defending, told the court Champion was suffering from anxiety and depression at the time of his arrest.

“He is off work with severe anxiety and depression,” she said at an earlier hearing.

“He was meant to start therapy before he was convicted and he had been off sick,” she added.

Champion preyed on the girl in 2018 as she searched for a safe place to stay, tricking her into thinking he was being kind.

When they were alone she rejected Champion’s advances. He then sexually assaulted, raped and goaded her, prosecutor Dominic Connolly told jurors.

The Judge, Recorder Stuart Trimmer QC, told Champion: “Custody must be the result.

“She was looking for a safe place to spend the night, she didn’t know your address or the area, she was drinking and had little avenue of escape.”

As well as the six-year prison sentence, Champion, of Merchants Way, Canterbury, faces a lifetime of notification requirements and a 10-year restraining order.

Mitigating, Ms Salvi said Champion had “worked all his life”, supported his unwell mother and planned on starting a business studies course.

Kieran Champion has been jailed for six years