Released rapist admits to ‘extremely serious’ sex attack on mentally ill woman

Robert Carpenter, who beat and raped a stranger on a footpath 40 years ago, has admitted to another sex crime.

A man who beat and raped a stranger on a footpath 40 years ago has admitted to sexually attacking a woman with a mental health disorder.

For 31 years Robert Carpenter, now 65, got away with his first crime in which he raped and viciously attacked a woman as she was on her way to work on Mother’s Day, March 25, 1979.

He had targeted her on a desolate footpath and stuffed a scarf into her mouth to stop her screaming.

Carpenter then beat her so badly he broke her jaw and raped her before throwing her over a fence, where she was found in a ‘dreadful state’ with ‘a haunted look on her face’, said police.

In 2010 he was finally brought to justice and jailed for six-and-a-half years, after DNA advances connected him to the attack.

But it was too late for his victim who died before he was convicted.

Now Carpenter has pleaded guilty to an ‘extremely serious’ sex offence, in June last year, when he appeared at Hull Crown Court on Friday.

He pleaded guilty to causing a person with a mental disorder impeding choice to engage in a sexual activity.

Carpenter, of Hull, East Yorkshire denied a further offence of rape against the same woman on the same date.

Prosecutor Claire Holmes said the pleas were acceptable to the Crown and the case was adjourned for pre-sentence and psychiatric reports.

Carpenter, who was released on bail, is due to be sentenced at the same court on October 31, although he was told that date may change.

Judge Paul Watson QC told him: ‘You mustn’t take the fact I’m granting you bail, or that I’m asking for reports, as any indication [of your sentence] when you come back.

‘You have pleaded guilty to an extremely serious offence.’

Carter committed the 1979 rape while his victim, who was in her 30s, was walking along Flixborough footpath to the steel works in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, where she worked as a canteen assistant.

She was found by a member of the public, bleeding from her mouth, badly bruised, and with her clothing dirty and bloodstained.

Carpenter had a string of convictions for violence and dishonesty dating back to the 1970s, including attacking police and biting a nurse.