Edwin Youll – Middlesbrough

A 63-year-old rapist who was convicted of 26 horrific crimes against four different females, has been sentenced to a total of 32 years.

Even when he is released, Edwin Youll will be on licence until he is 95.

Youll’s “campaign of terror” involved violent sex attacks on vulnerable women and girls a number of years ago in Middlesbrough.

One victim worked as a prostitute – Youll controlled her and sexually assaulted her so brutally, she was unable to walk afterwards.

One witness told the jury at Teesside Crown Court, that Youll used to strangle the woman. She said she saw cigarette burns on her too.

The woman suffered a stab wound on another occasion, and a second witness testified that she saw him punching the victim in the face.

Youll imprisoned another victim in forced sex sessions, where the woman could not escape for 16 hours.

The sexual monster pretended to be a taxi driver and began giving one of his victims lifts. But he drove her to some isolated woods and raped her twice, in the car. He took a knife out and left the victim with permanent injuries to her hand. He took what little money she earned from prostitution.

He told a 17-year-old girl, that he picked up at the bus stop on Union Street in Middlesbrough, that he needed to drive to a shop for some Rizla papers.

She became worried when he continued through Acklam and Hemlington – and then out to some fields.

He took a knife out from under his seat and held it to the victim’s throat – ordering her to take her clothes off.

When she refused, he told her he would “bury her alive.” He attacked her, and then locked the car doors and forced her into a sex act.

The victim later said that Youll “already had my grave dug for me.”

When he dropped the vulnerable woman off, he said that if she told anybody what had happened he would “handcuff her naked outside her house.

Youll refused to give evidence at his trial in June.

A jury found him guilty of 26 offences relating to four victims.

First victim – Youll was convicted of two rapes and two sexual assaults.

Second victim – found guilty of two counts of false imprisonment; living off the earnings of a prostitute; two counts of rape; five counts of sexual assault; two wounding offences and an assault

Third victim – Youll was convicted of attempting to rape this woman; two sexual assaults; the possession of a weapon and a knife

Fourth victim – Youll was found guilty of four sexual assaults on this child

One of the victims came to court to read out her statement. She told Youll: “I came to court to look you in the face and speak about what you have done.”

The woman said she had waited for over three decades for this day – “I have lived with the scars you have left me, inside and out. I have bathed myself in disinfectant, but I will never be clean.”

The victim spoke of Youll’s “violent attacks” on her and “the mental torture”. She said she still suffers from nightmares about the years of abuse.

In mitigation, Nick Lumley referred to Youlll’s ill-health, telling the court: “Time in prison will be a greater punishment for him than others.”

Youll sat with his arms crossed, and didn’t react as Judge Richard Clews told him he had caused “untold misery and anguish to his victims.”

“You carried out a campaign of terror and left a trail of devastation in your wake” the judge said. “By what you told your probation officer, you remain callously indifferent.

“Your behaviour was cruel and selfish in equal measure. It is well-lnown that often victims of sexual offences take many years to come forward.”

There was a quiet cheer from the packed public gallery, as Judge Clews handed Youll, of Bexley Drive in Normanby, the 32-year sentence. A man shouted “scumbag” at Youll as he left.

The sexual predator will serve two-thirds of his prison term before the parole board will consider him for release. He will sign the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.