Serial rapist smiles as he is jailed for 22 years

A serial rapist who strangled and threatened to kill five women, before blaming their injuries on consensual rough sex, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.

On Friday Portsmouth Crown Court heard how George De Bathe, from Chichester in West Sussex, abused and controlled his victims between 2015 and 2019, even continuing to offend after being arrested and placed under a restraining order.

Having been found guilty in April on 24 counts including rape, ABH, sexual assault, coercive control, making a threat to kill and false imprisonment, the 25-year-old shrugged and smiled as he was led from court.

Judge William Ashworth described him as "callous, cold and calculating".

The court heard how salesman De Bathe used blackmail and intimidation to abuse the five women physically, sexually and emotionally.

One young woman was strangled when she took a pregnancy test after being raped by him.

He had also held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her.

"You enjoyed inflicting pain and humiliation and you moved without significant pause from victim to victim," the judge said.

He added that De Bathe had bragged to his father about putting women in their place, while his mother had told police: "George admits he gets angry when he doesn't get his needs met."

However, despite fears over his increasingly worrying behaviour, his family did nothing, the judge said.

"No one in that household chose to stop you," he added.

"You are a dangerous offender who has shown little or no remorse."

The court also heard De Bathe's offending started while he was still at school.

He would control every aspect of his victims' lives, including how to dress, what to eat, where to go and who they were allowed to speak to.

One woman said: "I was so broken from what he had done to me, I didn't know who I was."

Another described being "completely indoctrinated" and "riddled with fear".

"He is a narcissistic and dangerously manipulative man," she said, adding that had she not reported him to the police "I'm sure he would have murdered me".

Confessing that "I'm psycho when I don't take my meds", De Bathe would pressure the women into taking nude or topless pictures of themselves which he would then use to manipulate them.

Some of them were under age at the time, the court was told.

De Bathe was first arrested in March 2019, and then again in April and November that same year.

Detective Constable Jon Petroulas said he had "shown a clear pattern of manipulating women, before revealing his violent, controlling and sexually abusive tendencies".

"Each of these women's lives was made a misery by De Bathe, and they must live with the trauma of his crimes."

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