A SERIAL offender has been jailed for ten years for raping a teenage girl he befriended in the street.

Glenn Trevor Williams, 62, raped and sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl before taking an indecent photo of her, at his flat in Bexhill.

Williams had been in Warrior Square, St Leonards, in July 2018, when he came across the girl and her then boyfriend, who appeared to be in some distress. 

Taking advantage of their vulnerability, he invited them back to his flat on the pretext of helping them find accommodation and work.

The Argus: Glenn Trevor WilliamsGlenn Trevor Williams

He then plied them with drink and assaulted the girl when she tried to sleep. 

The couple reported that they felt the alcohol had been spiked with a drug which quickly made them sleepy.

Detective Constable Liz Brunt of the East Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit said: "Williams has many previous convictions for theft and violence, including two for sexual offences involving children.

"He had been convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child for which he received six months' imprisonment.

"In 2018 he was convicted of inciting a female child under 16 to engage in a sexual act. 

“For this he received a four-year custodial sentence.

"It is clear that Williams is a manipulative and opportunistic predator and the fact that he is now behind bars is in no small part due to the evidence the couple gave against him." 

Williams, who is unemployed, has been given a 15-year sentence, with the first ten years spent in prison and the other five on extended prison licence supervision.

He will be a registered sex offender for life, and was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) severely restricting his access to children, to last indefinitely.

He had been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old man.

For information on how to report sexual offences and the support that is available, see the Sussex Police website.