A MULTIPLE rapist who received a letter of support from his serving police office sister before being sentenced has been jailed for 17 years.

Teesside Crown Court heard Derek Cairns continues to maintain his innocence, having been convicted by a jury of seven charges of rape, six of which were specimen counts.

The 45-year-old, of Brockwell Court, Coundon Grange, Bishop Auckland, remained impassive as he was sentenced by Judge Simon Hickey at Teesside Crown Court over a video link to Durham Prison. The judge described how during one attack Cairns said: “You know you want it” and threatened he could do what he wanted.

Judge Hickey said: “These are dreadful offences.”

Cairns’ barrister David Lamb also handed a reference and a letter from Cairns’ parents to the court.

He said: “He continues to maintain his innocence and the mitigation to him is of a limited nature.”

Mr Lamb said Cairns was a hardworking man and had no previous convictions.

Judge Hickey said: “These are dreadful offences. There was violence above and beyond the rapes.”

The judge said he had drawn back from giving Cairns an extended sentence, but said 17 years jail was the least sentence he could pass, half of which he would serve before being released on licence.

He said the references had spoken of another side of him and he had taken these into account.

Cairns was made subject of an indefinite restraining order and also barred from working with any vulnerable adults or children.

He will also have to notify the authorities of his movements when he is eventually released from prison.