A CONVICTED rapist who posed as a lottery winner as he offered a woman £60,000 to spend a weekend with him at a Carlisle hotel has been jailed.
The deception perpetrated by Annan man Leon Pedley, 34, amounted to a breach of his sexual harm prevention order, which was imposed after he was convicted of raping a female in Scotland, the city’s crown court heard.
Lawyers confirmed that the defendant was investigated for a second alleged rape during the hotel incident, but prosecutors ruled out further action.
Prosecutor Brendan Burke outlined how Pedley cynically duped a vulnerable woman into spending time with him at a hotel in Carlisle, telling her that he was a lottery winner.
Days before the encounter, Pedley had been released from jail for similar earlier offending, when he posed as a millionaire to gain “sexual favours” from a woman, said the prosecutor.
He was originally put on the Sex Offender Register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order following his conviction for “abduction and rape.”
He committed those offences in 2012.
An earlier hearing was told that there had been an allegation of rape following the hotel incident, but Crown Prosecution Service lawyers ruled out a prosecution.
Pedley spent the weekend with the woman at the hotel, offering her £60,000 to do so.
There appeared to be “deliberate targeting,” the earlier hearing was told. It was accepted that Pedley did not have the £60,000 he promised to the woman.
The lie meant he was in breach of his strict sexual harm prevention order because it bans him from having any face-to-face contact with any woman unless it has been approved beforehand by his offender manager.
What happened was a “deliberate breach” of the defendant’s sexual harm prevention order, said the prosecutor.
Pedley's recent 23-month jail term was imposed for an almost identical offence, which involved him claiming to be a millionaire and offering a woman £4,000 to meet and another £4,000 if she would have sex with him.
On that occasion also, said the prosecutor, the woman was never given any money. Judge Michael Fanning jailed the defendant, recently of Latimer Road, Annan, for two years and eight months.
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