Man jailed for sexual offences from the ’80s

A BRISTOL man has been jailed for sexually assaulting several women after being identified in a newspaper article by one victim he raped decades earlier.

Leroy Hall, 66, was given a sixand-a-half-year sentence at Bristol Crown Court after a victim identified him from a photo in the newspaper and informed police.

The victim was one of a number of women who were raped or sexually assaulted in the late 1980s and 1990s by Hall, pictured, triggering lifechanging trauma.

The victim impact statement of the woman who identified him, read in court, said that Hall’s actions continued to haunt her to this day after he raped her while giving her a lift to the Eastville area of Bristol.

The attack happened in the late 1980s when she was 17 but she recognised his picture in a newspaper report in 2017.

She said in her statement: “When my daughter was growing up, and even as an adult, I have been overprotective with her.

“I would organise her taxi, and check with her several times that night that she was OK when she went out, even checking she had got into the right taxi.

“I am still angry I have to go through therapy, and I still think about what happened to me every day of my life.”

Hall, of Chaplin Road in Easton, was also found guilty of one count of false imprisonment and one of indecent assault for offences committed on a second person in the mid1990s.

The woman, who was in her 20s at the time, was offered a lift by Hall in Stokes Croft – who then drove her around Bristol and indecently assaulted her.

He received custodial sentences of two and a half years for the false imprisonment offence and two years for the indecent assault, both which will run concurrently.

Investigating officer Rog Ibrahim of Bristol Criminal Investigation Division said the case showed that sexual offenders could be caught even decades after an attack.

He said: “We would like to thank both women for having the courage and strength throughout the investigation and crown court trial, as it has led to a serious sexual offender being brought to justice. Hall had previous convictions for rape and we welcome the custodial sentence he has received for his horrific crimes.

“We’d like to assure anyone who wishes to report any sexual offence that they will be believed – it does not matter if it happened 30 minutes ago or 30 years ago, it will be taken very seriously and we can help victims access any support services they may benefit from.”