Father-of-three Match.com rapist Jason Lawrance, 54, is found guilty of sex attacks on five MORE women he met on internet dating sites
- Father-of-three Jason Lawrance contacted thousands of women on Match.com
- 54-year-old jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years and six months in 2016
- The serial rapist has been found guilty of attacking another five women today
Jason Lawrance, 54, raped women he met through Match.com
A convicted serial rapist who subjected women to horrific sex assaults after targeting them on dating sites has today been found guilty of attacking a further five women.
Father-of-three Jason Lawrance contacted thousands of women on Match.com or its partner company Dating Direct between 2009 and 2014, attacking 13 of them to ‘satisfy a selfish sexual need’.
The 54-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years and six months in 2016 for sexually violating seven women.
He appeared emotionless as jurors at Nottingham Crown Court delivered the latest verdicts today.
Despite offering no defence during his second trial, Lawrance denied seven counts of rape, one charge of sexual assault and a further charge of assault by penetration – claiming all sex had been consensual.
But he was found guilty of five counts of rape, one count of sexual assault and one charge of assault by penetration.
Jurors cleared Lawrance of two further charges of rape.
At his previous trial at Derby Crown Court, a judge labelled the rapist a ‘devious and manipulative sexual predator’.
Five of Lawrance’s latest victims came forward after his ‘criminality filtered out into homes across the country’ through news reports covering the trial.
Lawrance used Match.com with profile names such as KeepItStraightToday and StraightMan-Looking
In July 2014, the former self-employed builder got one woman pregnant despite telling her he had had a vasectomy – something he later passed off as ‘just banter’.
Despite reassuring her repeatedly, Lawrance, who used Match.com with profile names such as KeepItStraightToday and StraightMan-Looking, messaged her the following day to tell her: ‘I have a confession. I’m still fertile. Sorry.’
Lawrance was convicted of two counts of raping the woman, in what is believed to be a legal first.
He had married a woman from Match.com in July 2014 – the same month he lied to his victim about having a vasectomy.
Lawrance also sexually violated three other women after his marriage, in Cambridgeshire, Rutland and Derbyshire.
He also attacked another woman in late 2012 in her Northamptonshire home before ‘calmly’ going upstairs to have a shower.
Lawrance had met the woman after she invited him round for a coffee and despite telling him, ‘No, I don’t want this’, he replied, ‘shut up… it’s going to happen anyway’ before raping her.
Other women were attacked in Lawrance’s car or van, with one being pushed on a double bed in the back of his van in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire in January 2014.
Another woman had a belt wrapped around her neck in an area called Bluebell Woods in Dingley Dell, Market Harborough shortly after he joined Match.com in 2009.
The former builder brutally assaulted women after meeting them on dating sites
The 54-year-old (pictured here on his wedding day) was jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years and six months in 2016 for sexually violating seven women
Opening the case against Lawrance earlier in July, Clive Stockwell QC said: ‘Rape necessarily involves the exploitation of vulnerability, vulnerability exploited to satisfy a selfish sexual need.
‘During this trial you will hear of the cruelty suffered by… vulnerable women, all exploited to satisfy a selfish sexual need. The selfish sexual needs of Jason Lawrance.’
In the previous trial in Derby, Judge Gregory Dickinson QC called for a review of internet dating safety measures after expressing concern that four of the victims had made complaints to Match.com before three other women were raped.
In order to try to prevent similar attacks, the site introduced the ‘report a profile’ feature and encourages all users to only message on its own platforms.
Lawrance, formerly of Liphook, Hampshire, was remanded back into custody by Mr Justice Jeremy Baker to be sentenced at the same court on October 3.
A spokesman for Match.com said: ‘Match has a zero-tolerance policy for reports of serious offences and we encourage anyone who has felt exposed to unsafe behaviour, whether through our services or anywhere else, to speak to the police.’
How rapist preyed on women after targeting them on dating site
Early 2009: Lawrance joins Match.com.
His first rape victim is attacked in Bluebell Wood in Dingley Dell, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, after he wraps a belt around her neck during sex.
June 2011: Lawrance rapes a second woman in the back of his van in a field in Crick, Northamptonshire, and warns her not to tell police.
He also sexually assaults a woman in a Toby Inn car park in Leicestershire.
Late 2012: Lawrance rapes a woman on a sofa in her own home in Northampton before calmly taking a shower and leaving.
July 2013: Lawrance rapes a sleeping woman at her home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, before she cries out for her 16-year-old son, forcing Lawrance to grab his clothes and leave.
November 2013: Lawrance rapes another woman in her home in Buxton, Derbyshire, as she hysterically screams ‘no, no, no’.
January 2014: Lawrance takes a woman for a drive to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire before raping her on a bed in the back of his van.
February 2014: He drives another woman to Bradgate Park after meeting at a hotel near East Midlands Airport and, after repeatedly being refused a kiss by his victim, he grabs her breast on the way back to the hotel.
July 2014: Lawrance rapes a woman twice in her Suffolk home after lying about having a vasectomy. His victim became pregnant after the rapes.
October 2014: After having consensual sex with his next victim at a hotel in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, Lawrance then rips the woman’s tights off, ties her hands behind her back, and rapes her after she asks to use the toilet in his room.
November 2014: Lawrance violently rapes his next victim in a hotel in Rutland, Leicestershire, after telling her ‘this is what you want’. The victim said in interview the one thing she remembered from the attack was Lawrance’s sweat dripping into her eyes.
Lawrance rapes his final victim in her Derbyshire home after she agrees to meet him in her lunch break, despite her pleas of ‘don’t do this’. After raping her, Lawrance asks if she is going back to work and if he can have another cup of tea before leaving.
March 2016: Following a trial at Derby Crown Court, Lawrance is jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years and six months after being convicted of raping five women and attempting to rape and sexually assaulting two further victims.
2016: Five more women come forward with allegations against Lawrance after hearing about his convictions in the news.
July 2019: He is convicted at Nottingham Crown Court of seven counts of rape, one charge of sexual assault and a charge of assault by penetration.
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