'Keep this rapist
behind bars'
Brendan Montague
Saturday January 25, 2003
The Lincolnshire Echo
A RAPIST who attacked
his teenage victim in a dark alleyway should never be freed, says his
girlfriend of 10 years.
Evelyn Taylor (30) today pleaded with the authorities to keep Mark Anthony Smith behind bars as long as possible.
Smith - the father of Miss Taylor's three children - was yesterday sentenced to life for raping an 18-year-old girl in what police have described as a "despicable act".
But in sentencing at Lincoln Crown Court, Judge Jonathan Teare said Smith could be eligible for parole in just four years, even though the jobless 27-year-old has previous convictions for sexual offences.
In an exclusive interview with the Echo following yesterday's hearing, Miss Taylor said she was unaware of Smith's violent past and had now severed all ties with him.
"At the end of the day, he should be left in prison for good," she said.
"I got a letter from him today which said he loves me, he wants me back and he expects me to wait for him.
"I ripped it up and put it in the bin. He must have realised what he was doing."
She added: "I've been with him for 10 years and no-one ever told me he has done things like this before.
"Someone should have told me - I've got kids. I don't know what to tell the children."
Smith, of Browning Drive in St Giles, Lincoln, and Miss Taylor were walking home from an evening out in the city on the night of Saturday, July 20, when the attack took place, the court heard.
The couple became separated near the Usher Gallery in Lindum Hill.
Moments later, Smith viciously attacked his victim after dragging her into a dark alleyway.
Prosecutor John Pini said Smith began pestering his victim - who cannot be named for legal reasons.
"He pushed her into an alleyway and she said 'no' straight away," said Mr Pini.
"Smith pushed her down onto the floor and told her to shut up. At this stage she gave up hope and he raped her, then ran off."
Barry Gilbert, representing Smith, said his client had spared his victim the trauma of appearing in court by pleading guilty to the crime.
But he added: "There is absolutely no excuse for getting drunk and getting carried away."
Police issued CCTV images which were published in the Lincolnshire Echo and Smith was arrested on August 14.
He denied the attack until confronted with evidence that his DNA matched samples found on his victim.
The teenager has been left deeply traumatised and is too terrified to go out at night, the court heard.
Judge Teare recommended that Smith serve a minimum of eight years, but acknowledged that he may be freed in January 2007, after serving half.
"You invaded this young woman's body and it caused a disastrous effect on her life," Judge Teare told Smith.
"She is terrified to go out at night. You dragged her into an alley and raped her."
After sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Picker, head of Lincoln CID, said: "This was a very nasty attack on a vulnerable young woman.
"We are very pleased with this sentence. It sends out a strong message to rapists and potential rapists."
Additional court reporting by Lincolnshire crime correspondent Chris Hill
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When Evelyn Taylor (left) walked home with her boyfriend one night last summer, she would never have believed he would turn out to be a rapist.
Now, as she tells Brendan Montague, his crime will haunt her and her family for the rest of their lives ...
MOTHER-OF-THREE Evelyn Taylor casually opened the Lincolnshire Echo one summer's evening, little knowing her life was just about to change for ever.
While reading of the horrific rape of a teenager in Lincoln, a slow, horrible realisation crept over her.
She had been there that night - and so had her partner of 10 years, Mark Anthony Smith.
Both had visited the city's pubs together on the night of July 20. Both had walked part of the way home together, up Lindum Hill - where the girl was raped.
Then halfway up the busy Lincoln road they had become separated. Mark walked on ahead and she lost him. Then, a few days later, descriptions of the couple were staring out at her from the newsprint.
"I get the Echo and a report of the rape was in there one night and I recognised the description," said Miss Taylor (30).
"I said to Mark, 'That was us that night.' But Mark denied it and said I should call the police if I didn't believe him."
Miss Taylor put her doubts to one side - until the police knocked on the door a few weeks later.
"Four weeks later the police came and knocked on the door and asked for him," she said.
"They told him he was under arrest for rape. As they left he told me he never did it but I phoned the police later and they said he had been charged.
"The children were screaming - the middle one took it the worst because she was very close to him and she has attention deficit disorder."
While her partner awaited his court appearances, Miss Taylor spent the next few weeks going over and over the events of that night.
"We both went out that night," she said. "We were in Jumpin' Jaks and then we went to Badgers and when we came out the pair of us fell asleep outside.
"As we walked home we got half way up the hill and she [the victim] overtook us. I did not think anything of it.
"He just carried on walking ahead of me but when I got to the corner I didn't know where he'd gone.
"When I got home he was not with me. He came back to me that night and slept in the bed with me and that is doing my head in."
He could not have known it at the time, but CCTV cameras had captured the crucial moments when the couple and the girl had ascended Lindum Hill.
Those images - which were printed in the Echo before his arrest - were eventually enough to help convince Smith to plead guilty.
He has never returned home and Miss Taylor never wants him to. "I visited him in prison but then he changed his plea to guilty. I've not spoken to him for four-and-a-half months.
"And I never want to see him again. I would not have him back.
"He used to live next door to my mum. I was only 20 when we started seeing each other.
"I never knew about his previous convictions and the whole thing has been such a shock.
"He was gentle, he was all right. He was good-hearted and everything. "I had never suspected him of anything. He used to come and help my dad because they were close.
"He never used to go out except to my mum and dad's. If we did go out we were together."
Not that Miss Taylor's obvious revulsion at her partner's crime has won her the support of her neighbours. She is now pleading with Lincoln City Council to give her a new home following death threats, bullying and threatening phone calls.
"I have been refused service in shops, I've had threatening phone calls and the children have been bullied at school," she said.
"I got a phone call saying they were going to get us and all the children came down the stairs screaming.
"The oldest one knows what is happening and she usually says that she's hasn't got a daddy any more.
"The second child is not sleeping at all because this is the same house. I'm trying to move and I'm applying to live next door to my family."
Miss Taylor added: "People know what he has done. I just want to be kept out of it, it was not my fault.
"The children are going to find it very difficult as they get older and start to understand everything.
"I'm getting support from my sister and my mum and dad. "I'm trying to start a new life and have a new boyfriend. "I just want to get on with things and settle down again."
Miss Taylor's sister Lisa (24) said the whole family had been shocked and traumatised by the sick attack.
"He was one of those people who anyone can get on with, he would help anybody and do anything for anybody.
"It has affected my sister in many ways - I go and see her every day and most of the time she's just sitting there crying. She's got to have someone with her all the time.
"I was shocked. He was never violent and none of us ever thought he could do something like this."