‘He’s just an animal. He’s not a human being, he’s a predator
WOMAN SPEAKS OUT ABOUT SCARY RELATIONSHIP
HE groomed and manipulated her into thinking his life of violence was in the past.
But after falling for the charms of gangland killer and rapist Stephen Rice, victim Kate Wilkinson was subjected to terrifying violence. Rice was jailed after he was convicted of shooting dead rival Frankie Kelly in a packed Bigg Market bar, in 1995.
Then in 2011 he was locked up for 11 years after subjecting a woman to a harrowing ordeal in which she was raped and beaten with a dumb bell bar in her own home.
The 55-year-old career criminal had been freed on licence from this sentence when he met his latest victim while the were both living in the same Gateshead tower block.
Recovering heroin addict Kate told the Sunday Sun how Rice, who lived in the flat below her, wooed her after she knocked on his door to complain about the noise he was making. But after charming her into believing he had changed, Rice launched a violent attack on the woman during which she feared she would be killed.
And today, after seeing her ex locked up for just 14 months for the assault, in which he smashed a full can of lager in her face, Kate has told of her fear that Rice will strike again after he is released.
The 43-year-old said: “I did love him and I thought he loved me in the beginning. But he’s just an animal.
“He’s not a human being, he’s a predator.
“I just don’t want him to get out and do this to someone else. If he can do this to me he can do it to anyone.”
Kate first met Rice in March 2020 when they both lived at Redheugh Court in the Teams area of Gateshead.
“I went down and he came to the door with his arms folded,” she explained. “I said ‘Can you keep the noise down.’ Then the next morning he came to my door with two bottles of vodka.”
Kate admits that she quickly fell for Rice, despite knowing about his past.
“He charmed us,” she said. “He’s so clever. I thought I was street wise, but he groomed us. He was the perfect gentlemen for the first three months. He would open doors for us and we went everywhere together.
“He was so loving, he was the perfect gentleman. I believed that he had turned a corner and I thought I would give him a chance.”
Rice talked to Kate about the 1995 shooting, which brought terror to revellers at the Bigg Market’s Macy’s bar, two days before Christmas.
Mr Kelly, was blasted in the chest at close range during a shootout in front of drinkers.
The 28-year-old staggered out into the street where he collapsed and died later at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
Rice, who has lived in the Arthur’s Hill and Benwell areas of Newcastle, fled the scene of the shooting in a taxi but he handed himself in to police six days later.
He denied murder but admitted manslaughter with a judge accepting Rice, then 30, had feared for his life and pulled the trigger to frighten his rivals who fired first.
“He boasted about the killing,” she said. “He made out it was self defence and I believed him.”
Rice also told Kate about his more recent conviction for the violent rape attack, during which he was said to have “used gratuitous violence”, in court.
“He concocted a story about the rape and I believed it,” she said. “He told me about it straight away and I thought people do get rehabilitated.”
But three months into the relationship something changed, said Kate.
“It was like a switch went on,” she said. “He started accusing us of having sexual relations with other men. I said; ‘I love you’ and I did.
“He was smoking lots of crack.” Newcastle Crown Court heard how things came to a head in April last year when Kate was at home and could hear him downstairs in his flat smashing things up.
Rice then went to her flat at 7am with a badly injured finger which was bleeding. She wrapped a towel around it and offered to call an ambulance but he refused.
Then Rice, who had brought four cans of larger with him started accusing Kate of seeing other men, and when she refused to have a drink, he smashed a full can of larger in her face.
“It was just a blood bath,” she said. “I thought I was going to die,” she said. “I still have nightmares.”
Kate said she was too scared to report what had happened to her, but a neighbour persuaded her to call the police.
“I was just in total denial,” she said. “I was terrified that they would let him out and I wouldn’t be believed.
Rice, of Redheugh Court, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was jailed for 14 months in May.
Kate was horrified when she was told how short the sentence is, but believes Rice was able to play the system in the same way he played her.
“I just don’t understand how he only got 14 months,” said Kate. “He’s shot someone and raped someone.
“He should have been ‘lifed off ’ a long time ago.
“He studied law whilst he was inside and he has spent most of his life in prison. He used to talk about crime a lot. He totally groomed us. It’s like something you see on the telly, but you think it will never happen to you.”
Kate is now trying to rebuild her life, but worried she will never get over Rice’s abuse.
“I’ll never be able to put this behind me,” she said. “It might get a bit easier but I’ll never ever get over this. When I’m out I just feel like if I walk around a corner he will be there.”