Man Guilty In Match.com Rapes
2 March 2016, 15:02 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
A jury at Derby Crown Court's been convicted of 7 sexual offences on women he met on a dating website.
50 year-old Jason Lawrence from Hampshire denied all charges against him.
Five of the counts were for rape with one of the victims being from Derbyshire.
A further 2 convictions have been made against Lawrance; one for attempted rape of a woman in Lincolnshire and sexual assault.
The jury took 10 hours find Lawrance guilty of all charges.
Judge Gregory Dickinson remanded him in custody until his sentencing on Thursday morning.
Lawrance- who had denies all 7 charges had said the sex was consensual in all five charges of rape, that the attempted rape was a misunderstanding and that the sexual assault where he grabbed a woman's breast was a ``loving touch'' which she objected to, so he apologised.
DCI Alison Rigby from Derbyshire Police has been leading the investigation:
TIME LINE:
2009: Jason Lawrance joins the match.com dating website.
April 2011: Lawrance contacts a 54-year-old woman from Northamptonshire, they exchange mobile numbers and go out for drinks on four occasions between April and June.
June 2011: The woman and Lawrance agree to meet up for a drink near Crick in Northamptonshire. Lawrance turns up in a van, drives her up a track to a field and takes her mobile phone away from her. He then encourages her to get into the back of the van where he rapes her and warns her not to tell the police.
July 2013: Lawrance meets another woman, aged 54, through match.com and asks her if he can come and see her. The pair go out for drinks and then return to her home in Lincolnshire, where he asks if he can stay over. The woman agrees on the condition that he sleeps on the sofa. During the night, the woman wakes up with an ``awful weight'' on her while Lawrance attempts to rape her. The victim calls out for her 16-year-old son and Lawrance grabs his clothes and leaves.
November 2013: Lawrance meets a third woman, aged 50, on match.com and, after exchanging texts and phone calls, they meet in Buxton, Derbyshire. They first meet at a Costa Coffee shop, and on a later date he arranges to come over to her house and stays the night where they have consensual sex. The following morning, Lawrance rapes the woman despite her ``hysterically screaming 'No, no, no'.''
February 2014: The former company director meets a fourth woman from the internet dating site at a hotel car park near East Midlands Airport. They drive together in the woman's car to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire where they go for a walk. Lawrance repeatedly asked the woman for a kiss, but she declines. The pair get into her car drive back to the hotel car park where Lawrance ``becomes aggressive'', leans across to kiss her and grabs her right breast.
October 2014: Lawrance meets a woman via the website and they have consensual sex in a hotel in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, before going out for a walk and a meal. The woman then asks to use the toilet in Lawrance's room before she drives home. At this point, he rips her tights off, ties her hands behind her back and rapes her.
November 2014: Lawrance meets up with a sixth woman in a Leicestershire hotel, tells her ``this is what you want'', tears her top off and rapes her. The victim, aged 48, says in interview the one thing she remembers the most from the attack is the sweat from Lawrance dripping into her eyes.
