Serial rapist who stalked seaside resort facing life
ASEX attacker has been warned by a judge he could face a life sentence after being convicted of a catalogue of brutal sex offences against three victims last year.
Clinton Ferreira, 38, was yesterday found guilty of sex assaults, rapes and attempted rapes committed against a local teenager celebrating exam results, a French tourist and a local woman over the course of three months last year.
It took the jury at Truro Crown Court just an hour to convict Ferreira, of Tregenna Place in St Ives, with false imprisonment, assault by penetration, two charges of attempting to choke/suffocate a victim with intent to commit rape, attempted rape, taking indecent photographs of a child, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and rape.
His case was adjourned to allow for a psychiatric report to be produced. Judge Simon Carr ruled that the sentencing hearing will take place on November 27, adding that he was going to carefully consider whether or not he should impose a life sentence.
Opening the case last week, Jason Beal said the case involved a series of sexual assaults on young women in St Ives in late summer and autumn last year. He said the first victim was just 16 and walking home after a night celebrating her GCSE results when she was attacked at Porthminster Beach in St Ives.
“Three weeks later the second victim, a French woman on holiday with her boyfriend, was attacked in a tent pitched on the beach, yards from where the first victim was assaulted.
“Then, in late, October a local woman went to the shop to buy wine. She was very drunk. There she met a man who took her back to his flat and raped her,” Mr Beal said.
During the attack on the 16-yearold Ferreira threw the girl’s phone away and choked her so she couldn’t scream. He committed several attacks on her and when the abuse came to an end he told her she was to walk towards the sea and not look back.
She eventually found her way to a hotel, hyperventilating, and distressed, where she summoned help.
Although the area in question wasn’t covered by CCTV, a camera nearby picked up a man shortly after the time of the attack heading in direction of Tregenna Place.
The second victim was St Ives with her boyfriend but returned alone to their tent pitched on Porthminster Beach. Mr Beal said: “She woke up during the course of the following morning with someone in the tent and when she woke up a second time she was struggling to breathe with a hand around her neck.” Again, CCTV pictured Ferreira, in a black hoody, walking towards Porthminster before heading back the other way towards Tregenna Place shortly after the attack was said to have taken place.
When Ferreira was arrested there were photographs and video on his phone of the first attack with his tattoo clearly visible. Following the arrest another woman came forward to say she had been sexually assaulted and identified Ferreira as the attacker.
Detective Sergeant Nigel Green, from Devon and Cornwall Police Major Crime Investigation Team, commended the bravery of the three victims and the support shown to the police by the St Ives community.