‘He’s got away with it, he’s trying again’
VICTIM OF SEX ATTACKER TELLS OF HORROR AS ABUSER LEFT FREE TO STRIKE AGAIN
A SEX ATTACKER struck again after escaping prosecution for a sick assault on his first victim.
Keith Robinson, 44, abused Mark Evans as he slept but the case was not pursued by police.
Then remorseless Robinson struck again in almost identical circumstances.
Robinson has now finally been brought to justice for the attacks five years apart – entering guilty pleas to sex offences at Manchester Crown Court.
But Mark Evans, who was just 18 when Robinson sexually assaulted him, has waived his anonymity to speak of his anger at the way his complaint was dealt with.
Robinson met both victims through their mutual interest in theatre. But after the first attack on Mark, New Mills Art Theatre, in New Mills, near Stockport, allowed Robinson to carry on working for them as a volunteer after police decided not to proceed.
Officers had investigated Mark’s complaint but decided there was insufficient evidence to present the case to the Crown Prosecution Service to take it further.
Mark has now made a formal complaint to Derbyshire Police about the quality of their investigation into his case.
Now 25, Mark said: “I have sent a letter to the chief constable of Derbyshire. Their first investigation led to me not having justice for seven years, and quite serious harm being caused to another person. For seven years I had no closure. It was like a dark secret I had to keep. Now Robinson has been jailed it is liberating, and has proven beyond doubt that this happened. He was a so-called pillar of the community in a position of trust.”
Mark was working as a volunteer at New Mills Art Theatre when he was targeted by Robinson.
“At the time I lived with my mum and dad in New Mills”, he said. “I was a general stage hand at the theatre. I had been working there about a year. Robinson was also a volunteer but had been there for about 15 years as he was an electrician by trade and did all the maintenance work.”
One night in October 2010 Mark and Robinson went for a pint after a night working at the theatre. “He lived on the other side of town and didn’t fancy walking all the way home and asked if he could stay in the spare room at my mum and dad’s,” Mark said.
Mark’s parents welcomed Robinson and put up a sofa bed for him downstairs. But in the middle of the night he walked into Mark’s bedroom and sexually abused him as he slept.
“I was awoken by him and was in a state of shock,” Mark said. “I lay there for a while thinking ‘is this real?’ He ran off when he realised he had woken me up.”
Police investigated and arrested Robinson that night. “It was a few days later after he had been bailed