Obsessed by sex, he preyed on women looking for love
THE murky world of online dating provided fertile hunting ground for a man like Jason Lawrance, a sex-obsessed father-of-three with a disturbing liking for rough sex and rape. On screen, the builder and property developer was able to present himself as a respectable divorcee and father of grown up children. He was a successful businessman with a passion for rugby and boxing. He came across as conventionally masculine, confident and capable, the kind of man who could be relied on.
For the women unfortunate enough to click on his Match.com profile or respond to one of his messages, 50-year-old Lawrance was apparently exactly what they were looking for.
Most of those who went on to arrange dates with him were in their late 40s or early 50s and looking for love and companionship after being divorced or widowed. When they met him in the flesh, however, they were to learn in the vilest manner imaginable that Lawrance was nothing like his on-screen alter ego.
Five of the women who met up with Lawrance were raped by him. Two others were brutally attacked. Yet another Match woman married him in the middle of all these crimes – an extraordinary turn of events we will turn to in a moment.
In court, Lawrance’s defence was that the sex was consensual. ‘I believe it is called “playing the field”’, he said. ‘I like ladies and I like sex. That’s Match.com.’
But his two-week trial at Derby Crown Court has raised disturbing questions about how the serial rapist targeted his victims online behaviour and to why, Match, when nothing several was reported done histo stop him from using the site.
Speaking after the jury delivered their guilty verdict yesterday, Judge Gregory Dickinson QC said he wanted to see ‘if lessons can be learned on the use of such sites.’
A spokesman for Match – the UK’s most popular dating site – said it had the ‘ most heartfelt concern’ for the victims, adding that ‘the safety of our members is our highest priority’. The site claims to work closely with the police, but ultimately places responsibility for personal safety on its members. The spokesman added: ‘We also encourage everyone to use the same common sense meeting people with our app or online as they would if they were meeting through friends or in a pub or bar.’
Lawrance, from Hinckley in Leicestershire, brazenly attacked and raped his victims in crimes spanning five counties and three and a half years. One woman was raped on bunk beds in the back of his van in Northamptonshire. Another was attacked in her own home in Lincolnshire after Lawrance, who she had allowed to sleep on the sofa, crept into her bedroom.
Clearly, Lawrance was banking on the fact that having agreed to meet him, and in a couple of cases to have consensual sex with him, the women would be reluctant to contact the police. If they did so, it would be their women word clearly against believedhis. Many that of com- the
plaining to Match was the only way they could stop him. Four of them did so. ‘He is a sexual predator and dangerous,’ the first victim wrote. ‘I want him blocked so he can’t see me or contact me again.’ And yet Match refused to take down his profile, claiming that nothing could be done because he hadn’t sent any abusive messages via their website. But if Lawrance thought he was unstoppable, his seventh victim, a woman he raped at her home in November 2014, did contact the police. Investigations then revealed the appalling ordeals of the six other women he had raped or attacked. In court, Lawrance’s sole defence was that he was a philan- dering cheat who loved sex. In public, his reputation couldn’t have been more respectable. Born and raised in the village of Burbage in Leicestershire, Lawrance played football for his village team and took up amateur boxing as a teenager at the now-defunct Belgrave Boxing Club in Leicester. A former coach remembers him as ‘an average performer who won a few and lost a few... He wasn’t a big lad.’ He left school at 16 and became an apprentice bricklayer, later setting up his own company, L and P Engineering Ltd, and moving into the lucrative property development market.
Although he never married his long-term partner Fiona Lloyd, they were together for 23 years and had three children. They settled down in one of the luxury homes he built in Hinckley, where he was also an Under 11s rugby coach.
While neighbours recall a somewhat overbearing man who liked to give the impression that ‘he owned the area’, a former associate says:
‘He is dangerous – I want him blocked’ He appeared to be so respectable
‘He seemed to be a perfectly pleasant guy. I was absolutely shocked to hear the allegations against him. It’s not something you could have seen coming based on his nature.’
In a character reference presented in court as part of his defence, Lawrance’s son Josh described him as ‘my role model’. He added that his father ‘taught me everything from how to kick a football, to protecting others... We [Lawrance’s children] all seem to be doing well and this can only be because of the way we were brought up’.
Lawrance’s relationship with Fiona appears to have broken down around five years ago. She declined to comment on the case this week. Neighbours say he moved out around 2011, the year of the first rape.
It is not known exactly when he met his current wife, a 51-year-old motherof-one, only that they married in July 2014 at the height of his crimes.
She certainly fitted the mould of woman that he went after. Physically petite, like most of his victims,
she had also been recently bereaved after her partner was killed in a motorcycle accident. Heartbroken and looking for love, she met Lawrance on Match, unaware that he was also obsessively trawling the profiles of hundreds of other women.
Puffed up with pride, Lawrance clutches a glass of champagne in a wedding photograph posted online by a family member while his bride smiles happily, unaware she had married a rapist and a serial cheat. Three of the rapes took place just weeks later.
Lawrance was finally arrested in November 2014, not long after his seventh victim contacted Derbyshire police. In court, his defence, that he simply liked ‘consensual, casual sex’, made a vile mockery of his marriage. ‘That’s what Match.com is like,’ he said. ‘People meet and have casual sex, then depart. That’s how it is.’
Asked why, if the sex was consensual, he hadn’t seen one of his victims again, Lawrance replied: ‘She lived too far away. And I already had a wife.’
This week Lawrence’s motherin-law said her daughter is now separated from her husband.
Little wonder. Lawrence went on to admit that at the time of the offences, his wife was ‘at home’ and he ‘obviously wasn’t bothered’ about her. Faced with the prospect of a lengthy jail sentence for rape, infidelity, it seems, was the least of his worries.