Hartlepool man Waite jailed for historic rape of two women

Jeffery Waite, from Hartlepool, will also be on the sex offenders’ register for life.

He had denied raping a woman four times and a teenager once and faced a trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Both alleged victims said they felt unable to report the incidents at the time.

A jury heard police became involved after one of the women had counselling for mental health and other personal problems.

She mentioned to the counsellor about being raped many years earlier, and she said the man who had done it was involved in the taxi trade.

The counsellor felt duty-bound to tell the police because the alleged perpetrator was serving the public, the court was told.

Waite, who operated ice cream vans, is alleged to have plied the teenager with alcohol at a workingmen's club before buying her more drink at nightclub in Hartlepool.

She said she was then taken in a taxi to a house and raped.

The victim told the jury she spoke to a friend in the nightclub in a bid to get away from Waite.

Waite said he knew the house where the rape took place, but he had no key to it at the time.

Simon Reevell, prosecuting, asked Waite why the alleged victims were still frightened of him.

"We saw shaking and tears when they gave their evidence," said Mr Reevell.

"You frightened those women when you raped them, and you are still frightening them now."

Waite said he had no idea why the women appeared frightened of him.

The former milkman, of no fixed abode, denied five charges of rape.

One of the victims told in an impact statement how he had stolen her childhood, and continues to have problems.

She said she could not provide support to her children, and she had suffered two failed marriages.

Waite fled the UK and was arrested in Spain and charged with the offences.

Jeffery Waite is arrested in Spain. Picture: NCA

Jeffery Waite following his arrest in Spain for the rape of two women decades earlier. Picture: NCA

He was arrested in Alicante, having travelled to the country in 2016 and was subject of a European arrest warrant having failed to stand trial over the alleged offences in August 2016.

His barrister Stephen Duffield told Judge Sean Morris: “I ask your to bear in mind his age when he is released.

“He is a man in poor health with great difficulty breathing, which will bear upon him when he serves what to be a long sentence.”