Rapist attacked women as they slept and claimed he was 'dreaming'

A film student who claimed he was ‘dreaming’ when he repeatedly raped two women as they slept has been jailed for 14 years.

Connor Yaxley, 30, also sexually assaulted another woman by touching her as she slept on a chair at his home.

The pervert claimed he had been sleeping when he had sex with his victims and was unaware of his actions.

But a jury took just six hours to convict him following a trial after hearing that he had informed one of the women that he fantasised about rape.

He told her in a message: ‘When my hormones are up, I simply cannot control myself. I cannot keep hurting people. I’m scared of my own urges.’

One of Yaxley’s devastated victims, who can’t be named for legal reasons, described him as a ‘bogeyman’ as he was put behind bars.

She said: ‘It feels like there’s a bogeyman constantly on my shoulder, like a phantom fear which is difficult to explain.

‘I still can’t sleep all of the way through the night because of this feeling I have at night.’

Another said she was ‘haunted’ by the defendant, saying: ‘I will never heal from this trauma. At least now I know he won’t be able to prey on other women.’

Yaxley’s first victim told the court he used the excuse of having sex with her while he was asleep on multiple occasions.

Another time, he claimed he had accidentally penetrated her while he was asleep.

The other rape victim described to police how she had twice woken up from a deep sleep to discover the predator was having sex with her.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, she told Norwich Crown Court the second incident occurred when she had explicitly told him she didn’t want to have sex.

She explained to jurors that she was a deep sleeper and took time to wake up and realise what was happening.

‘I thought he was asleep and woke him up and asked why. He said he didn’t remember and must have done it in his dreams and that he was so sorry and did not know what he was doing,’ she said.

Under cross-examination, the woman admitted she had accepted his explanations at the time and that on a third occasion she had consented to sex after waking to find Yaxley touching her intimately.

But she went on to say that she had only come to realise his actions were wrong after confiding in a friend.

The court heard that the third victim was sexually assaulted after slumping asleep in an armchair at the defendant’s home in Great Yarmouth, Suffolk.

Prosecutor Andrew Thompson said the incident in August 2020 was ‘unwanted touching that was clearly sexual’.

Yaxley told police in an interview that he would do things ‘without knowing because he was dreaming at the time’.

He also claimed to have a history of bad dreams and had woken up to find he was having sex with one of the women.

But Mr Thompson told the jury that a person could only consent to sex by ‘choice’ – and if they had the ‘freedom and capacity to make that choice’. A sleeping woman was the same as an ‘unconscious’ woman, he added.

Yaxley’s actions showed he ‘will not take no for an answer’ and his behaviour was that ‘of a rapist’.

Yaxley, who was studying film at the University of Suffolk, based at East Coast College in Great Yarmouth, was convicted of five counts of rape and one of sexual assault between 2017 and 2020.

Judge Andrew Shaw had said he was considering a life sentence after Yaxley was convicted in August.

Sentencing him on Friday, he said he had ‘the gravest concerns’ about the defendant, adding: ‘It’s a concerning feature that you seem to think it is okay to have sex with sleeping and unconscious women.’

Referring to one victim to whom he admitted he had rape fantasies, the judge went on: ‘You said you liked to use her as a tissue and that crying girls turned you on.’

Yaxley will also be placed on the sex offenders register and made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the rest of his life, which will require him to inform police of all future relationships on his release from prison.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Dylan Thomas  said after the hearing: ‘These offences happened while these women were sleeping and while they were at their most vulnerable.

‘They were unsure if anyone would believe them up until they reported what happened to police and showed great courage despite the trauma they have suffered.

‘I would urge anyone who believes that they are a victim of rape or sexual assault to report it to the police to that positive action can be taken against the perpetrator.’