Rapist who targeted teenage girls jailed for non-recent sex offences

A rapist who preyed on young girls in the 1980s has finally been brought to justice.

Paul Cole, 70, has been jailed for 24 years after raping and sexually abusing two girls while they were aged between 11 and 16.

Justice was delivered after both victims, who were unknown to each other, separately came forward as adults to report the abuse they had suffered at Cole’s hands as children.

The abuse took place in London, Reading and Basingstoke in the 1980s.

Cole raped and sexually abused one of the girls in Basingstoke in the late 1980s various times at his home address, her home, and at a secluded location he had driven her to.

It was later established that she was Cole’s second victim. Years earlier, he had also raped and abused another young girl in secluded areas at Mortimer Common and at his former personal address in London between 1981 and 1984.

Once this woman reported Cole to Hampshire Police in 2020, similar allegations made by his second victim years earlier were re-investigated and ultimately joint-prosecuted by the CPS.

Despite him strenuously denying any knowledge of his first victim, she was able to correctly identify his place of work which the prosecution used to disprove Cole’s defence.

Another key piece of evidence was the diary of Cole’s second victim, in which an entry dated in June 1988 detailed how Cole lured the victim into his home in Basingstoke before indecently assaulting her.

During the trial, prosecutors successfully argued that it was no coincidence two women unknown to each other would report the same man for sexual crimes – both presenting corroborated evidence of Cole’s description, addresses, employment and other information at the time of the offences.

He was sentenced on Monday 18 December at Winchester Crown Court having been convicted of multiple counts of rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child.

Louise Holmes, of the CPS Wessex Complex Casework Unit, said: “Paul Cole fooled members of the community into believing he was an honest, hardworking family man. In reality, he was a cruel rapist who preyed on children for his own selfish sexual gratification.

“Both victims were unknown to each other and bravely came forward separately years after suffering at Cole’s hands. 

“Their evidence of how Cole abused them was similar and piecing that evidence together was crucial for our prosecution team, who carefully unravelled Cole’s guilt to the jury.

“Our message to victims of historic sex abuse is clear – it is never too late to achieve justice.”

As well as his custodial sentence, Cole received a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.