Justice Catches Up With Rapist Decades Later

A Merseyside rapist is facing a prison sentence after he was convicted of historic sex offences dating back four decades.

Bar worker William Ashton, 54, of Breccia Gardens, St. Helens was arrested after three women came forward and made complaints about sex attacks between 1972 and 1984.

He was convicted by a Croydon Crown Court jury of one count of raping a female when she was aged sixteen to seventeen years-old, plus four counts of indecently assaulting the same victim.

The rape ocurred at an address in Brunswick Road, Sutton, which was the location of two of the indecent assaults, the remaining two ocurring at an address in Cantrill Farm, Liverpool.

Ashton was found not guilty of indecently assaulting another girl, who said her breasts were repeatedly groped by the defendant, who she claimed also forced his hands between her legs as they rode in a lift at a block of flats.

He was also cleared by the jury of four counts of indecent assault relating to the third complainant.

The rape victim told the trial Ashton was “angry” about the fact she had never had sex before, but proceeded anyway, leaving blood on the bed he took her to.

“He told me to lay down, to shut my eyes and it was over,” she told the court. “That was the last time.”

Before the rape she said Ashton “built up to it” by molesting her in a bathroom and putting his fingers inside her.

The third complainant also alleged Ashton molested her in a bathroom when she was aged four to eight years-old, but the jury acquitted him of those counts.

The defendant claimed the complaints were an “invention” and “false allegation” but each woman denied telling lies, stating it was very dificult to come forward after so many years.

Ashton was bailed until July 8 for sentencing.