'High Priest' who raped and raped again is finally caged - 25 years on

A MULTIPLE rapist who changed his name by deed poll to Joshua the High Priest and led a 
"charmed life" after attacking two teenage women in Sheffield was finally jailed today - 25 years after he claimed his first victim.
The crimes of 51 year-old Priest, were described by detectives who successfully reopened the cases - which date back to the mid-1980s - as "every woman's worst nightmare".

The dreadlocked Priest was arrested after the second incident but released when there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

A judge at Sheffield Crown Court heard how joiner Priest - who changed his name from Robert Wilson - violently raped an 18-year-old woman in Sheffield in 1984.

The court was told the young woman got into his car thinking it was taxi after she finished a shift behind a nightclub bar.

She was driven to a quiet area in the Broomhall area of the city where she was hit and raped.

Judge Graham Robinson heard she was severely traumatised by the incident to the extent she later tried to kill herself by cutting her wrists and lying down in a road hoping to be run over.

He was then told how, in 1985, Priest attacked a 17-year-old girl who had been staying at her boyfriend's house, also in the Broomhall area, after the defendant broke in looking for cash.

Priest threatened the girl with a "rusty sword" he found in the house and then a bread knife before committing a very serious sexual assault on her in the kitchen.

"Please no. Please God, don't do this to me"... Judge Graham Robinson heard that girl, who was a virgin, begged the defendant to stop, saying: "Please no. Please God, don't do this to me".

The judge said Priest's threats to her must have "chilled her to her core".

Grandfather Priest, of Sunny Bank, Broomhall, admitted rape and the second serious sexual assault at a hearing last month.

The court was told today that in 1986 he was convicted of another knifepoint rape in Broomhall which he committed just weeks after the attack on the 17-year-old.

The judge in 1986 jailed him for seven years for this rape and for robbing the victim, who was a prostitute.

He was also jailed for three years in 1993 for a sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl which took place in either 1991 or 1992.

Priest was arrested in connection with the attack on the 17-year-old in 1985, shortly after the incident, but never prosecuted.

He was re-arrested in connection with the 1984 and 1985 offences last year after South Yorkshire Police found a match between Priest's DNA on the national database and samples retained from the crime scene.

Priest's conviction and lengthy sentence will be hailed as another success for South Yorkshire Police's Cold Case Review team, which has seen a string of violent sex offenders put behind bars.

Det Sgt Ian Harding, who runs the unit on a day-to-day basis, said Priest was on the national DNA database because he had scores of convictions for offences involving robbery, burglary and drugs.

Mr Harding said he believed Priest could be responsible for other serious sex offences but he did not have the evidence to bring them to court at the moment.

Asked about Priest's crimes, the detectives said they were "particularly horrific".

Mr Harding said: "The offence of rape is horrific for any woman. But, given the aggravating features here, surely this has got to be every woman's worst nightmare."

He went on: "Unfortunately these two ladies have had to spend their lives learning to deal with what has happened to them.

"Thankfully they've now got this to help them deal with it."

The court heard how the 1984 investigation ran into difficulties when the victim eventually stopped co-operating because, she said, the police at the time were not dealing with her appropriately.

Judge Robinson heard how the woman alleged six male officers watched her undress but he was told this was unlikely to have been true.

The woman also alleged an officer at the time made a comment about her not wearing a bra.

The judge said: "I think it's accepted that at that time rape victims weren't treated with the same sensitivity that they are now."

Mr Harding said the fact the victim was now being believed was very important to her.

Asked about how Priest was arrested and released in 1985, the detective praised his predecessors for getting as far as they did. continues here

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