Man jailed for 9 years for raping heavily pregnant woman

A musician who raped a heavily pregnant woman has been sentenced to nine years behind bars. Gavin Carey, 28, looked ‘crazed, focused and determined’ as his victim desperately tried to protect her baby bump, a court heard.

The expectant mother, who has since given birth, said that the attack left her with trust issues and caused her to cry everyday afterwards.

It has changed me as a person. My priority was to protect my baby bump, she said. I keep replaying it over and over again in my head, thinking what I could have done differently so this wouldn’t have happened.

She continued:

I feel disgusted and can’t get the image out of my head of the look on his face as he attacked me. I still see that face in my head every day.

The victim added that she kept apologising to her baby bump and crying every time she thought about what happened.

To do that to someone at their most vulnerable is disgusting and low, she said. After my baby was born I felt so guilty. I felt it was an attack on both of us.

Carey, originally from South Shields, South Tyneside, denied rape but was convicted after a jury found him guilty at Newcastle Crown Court.

His fiancée, Lisa Finn, 41, has vowed to stand by him, telling the court that that he ‘means everything’ to her. The HMRC worker, who owns her own car and home, met Carey just before he was interviewed over the rape allegation.

Even though Gavin is much younger than myself, he is very mature, she said.

He has family values, is hard working and will help anyone. She continued: I lost my only sibling, a brother, in 2006. No-one has sincerely protected and looked after me in the way my brother did until Gavin came into my life.

My parents think the world of him and see him as a son. He has brought so much to my life and my family. I have never had that in previous relationships.

He has never hurt me or been violent. He is a gentleman and very loving. He looks up to his father and grandparents. His family are good people.

If Gavin wasn’t in my life I would be heartbroken, plans to marry and have babies would be ruined. I would hope if Gavin was a bad person, I would have seen signs of that by now.

Gavin means everything to me and that is why I am committed to him. He has brought so much positivity to my life.

I will stand by him for good reason, he is a good man. Cathy McCulloch, defending, said Carey, of Kellett Close, Washington, had long-standing mental health problems, which he would self medicate with drugs in the past.

But she said the defendant had since ‘put his life back on the rails’ and was a ‘confident and kind’ person. Judge Sarah Mallett jailed Carey for nine years and said he must sign the sex offenders register for life.

You got on top of [the victim] and you raped her. She tried to push you away and protect herself,’ she told him. ‘She tried to tell you you were hurting the baby, as she tried to wriggle away.