SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Harrower said:

"William Crowther, on Wednesday, 15 January 2025, on the first day of a refixed trial diet, you pled guilty to an indictment containing a single charge of rape.  An earlier trial diet had started on the Monday of that same week.  But on the Tuesday, towards the conclusion of the Crown case, it required to be deserted and a new trial diet fixed for the following day.  Shortly before the ballot was due to take place, you tendered a plea of guilty, subject only to the deletion of that part of the libel alleging that the offence was aggravated by involving abuse of your partner or former partner.  The Crown having accepted that plea, I deferred sentence in order to obtain a background report. 

You had known the complainer for several years.  For at least part of that period, you had also been in a relationship.  At the time this incident occurred, that relationship was over, but the complainer still considered you her best friend and felt safe in your company.  On 6 May 2022, the two of you were in Knockengorroch.  That morning, the complainer had retired to her caravan, having hurt her foot the night before.  You provided her with medication to help her deal with the pain.  She told you she was going to have a lie down until after lunch.  While changing to get into bed, she had to duck under the windows to avoid being noticed by passing workmen.  She sent you a light-hearted text about that, and then fell asleep while watching television. 

I will not go into the details of what happened next other than to say that you appear to have taken this as an opportunity to enter her caravan, wake her up and have sexual intercourse with her without her consent.  When cross-examined by counsel, the complainer robustly and comprehensively dismissed your own very different account of what happened.  At the invitation of counsel I have had regard to the transcript of your police interview in order to obtain further details of that account.  However, much of what you said there is inconsistent with your plea of guilty.  Moreover, having chosen not to give evidence, your account, unlike the complainer’s, was never given under oath or subjected to cross-examination.  It follows that any weight that I might properly give to your account is very much diminished.  In his submissions before me today, Mr Hiller has quite properly accepted that I should proceed on the basis of the evidence that I actually heard.

Ultimately, I accept the complainer’s evidence that it would have been obvious to you that she did not consent. She was terrified and crying.  She could not understand how her best friend would do this to her. After you had finished, you jumped up, and said, “I’m sorry”.  She told you to get out and remembered you laughing as you left.   In later text messages, she became angry at your failure to take responsibility for what you did, although in these exchanges you did eventually concede, “I didn’t stop when you said ‘no’, and I should have done”.  You also admitted to having “[taken] advantage” of her.  

Mr Crowther, you are now 40 years old.  You have a recent conviction for driving while disqualified and without insurance, and a number of other non-analogous convictions from between 1997 and 2008.  Although you have never before served a sentence of imprisonment, I am satisfied that, for this offence, only a significant custodial sentence is appropriate.  I have taken account of everything said on your behalf by Mr Hiller.  The social work report assesses you as presenting with either a low or a moderate risk of sexual reoffending depending on the risk assessment tool used. 

While your guilty plea meant that the new trial did not require to proceed, it came too late to save the complainer from the ordeal of having to give evidence at commission, and indeed too late to save the Crown from having already set out almost the whole of its case.  Moreover, while the complainer would have been entitled to feel vindicated by the fact that you ultimately pled guilty, in your interview with the social worker, you appear at times to have reverted to your former position of denial.  It is clear from the complainer’s victim impact statement that this apparent refusal, from someone she trusted, properly to take responsibility for his actions has had a profound effect upon her, sending her, as she put it, into a “deeper spiral” of psychological decline.  You didn’t just rape her, you raped her “then lied about it”.  In these circumstances, while I am prepared to give you some credit for your plea, that will be restricted to one twentieth of the sentence that I would otherwise have imposed.

Mr Crowther, I sentence you to a period of imprisonment of 6 years and 4 months, backdated to 15 January 2025, when you were remanded in custody.  You will be subject to the notification provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 indefinitely.  Finally, I will impose a non-harassment order, such that you may not approach or contact, or attempt to approach or contact, the complainer, also for an indefinite period."