Rapist sentenced to six years in prison at Swindon Crown Court

A Marlborough man has been jailed for six years after he was found guilty of raping a woman following a night out with her.

A jury at Swindon Crown Court unanimously found James Rumney, 29, of Poulton Hill, Marlborough, guilty of two counts of rape last month - August 2022. 

Today - 23 September - at the same court, he was sentenced to six years in prison and will be on the sex offenders register for life, once released. 

Rumney met the woman while out one evening with a group of friends in September 2020. Later, the friends moved on to the home of one of the people in the group. Here, Rumney and the woman had consensual sex in one of the bedrooms at the address.    

However, during the evening, Rumney demanded more sex which his victim didn’t want to do. It was then that he forced himself on her, and raped her twice. She eventually managed to leave the bedroom to get away from him.

During Rumney's sentencing, Judge Townsend said: "I do not take you had consensual sex earlier, a mitigating factor. The impact on your victim has been devastating. I want to pay tribute to her for revealing these matters and to go through the trauma of giving evidence." 

Also, following the sentencing, Det Con Sally Booth from Wiltshire Police said:  “This case has highlighted how a relatively typical situation, where a man and woman have consensual sex together after meeting up on a night out, can quickly change to the awful crime of a serious sexual assault.

“Our victim asked the perpetrator to stop on more than one occasion but he refused and continued to force himself on her, at times treating her like an inanimate object. She was terrified and very distressed and it took an enormous amount of bravery for her to get away from him and then report it to us.

“Situations like this where something starts out consensual, but quickly turns to non-consensual, I believe are not uncommon. However, often a victim will feel like they cannot report it because they agreed to sleep with the perpetrator in the first place and so no-one will believe them. 

“This is just not true. If you have been or ever are in situation like this, you must report it – a serious crime has been committed. You will be believed and treated by specially trained officers. We will investigate the crime and take every action possible to bring the offender to justice.

“I’d like to thank the victim for having the courage to come forward and report this in the first place. It’s not an easy thing to do but her bravery in doing this helped us investigate this crime which led to this jail sentence.”   

Wiltshire Police would always urge victims of sexual offences to report these to the police. Individuals can do this by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency.

Victims can also seek support and counselling from the Swindon and Wiltshire Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) - they can be contacted on the helpline 01793 781916.