Prison for brutal liar who raped 
woman thrown off bus over 20p

Joseph Moran was branded a “pathological liar” by the judge who sentenced him at Nottingham Crown Court for the brutal rape of the young woman.

Judge James Sampson told Moran his defence that he had stumbled across the victim and helped her on the night of the attack was reprehensible.

Moran, who picked at his fingers and stared blankly as sentence was passed, was told by the Judge: “You claimed to have come across her and claimed to have come to her aid.

“It’s a line you maintained throughout your trial. It’s obvious that you’re a pathological liar and a man without an ounce of remorse or shame.”

The judge ordered him to serve an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of six and half years.

The 23-year-old woman had been out with friends in Nottingham on December 9 last year when a driver refused to let her board the last bus to Mansfield because she was 20p short of the £5 fare.

She began walking along Mansfield Road out of the city where she had arranged to be collected by her mother when she was attacked.

Moran, 19, from Sneinton, subjected the young woman to an appalling and protracted attack lasting 25 minutes.

She suffered 26 injuries across her body when he grabbed her by the neck and dragged her into undergrowth in the Forest Recreation Ground.

Judge Sampson told him the victim was “intelligent, hard-working, brave, full of the optimism of youth and who, but for want of a small act of kindness, was left isolated and vulnerable in the small hours of the city”.

He sentenced Moran, who appeared in court wearing jeans and a t-shirt, to serve the sentence in a young offenders’ institute.

The court heard that Moran had pounced on the young woman in an attack that was fuelled by drink and drugs. Shortly before, he had stolen a car and had a fight with a friend.

He was disturbed in the midst of the attack by the blue flashing lights of a police car after officers pulled over the victim’s mother because she was driving slowly searching for her daughter.

It was then that Moran emerged from bushes and told them he had found the young woman. She was discovered just after 4am, unconscious with terrible injuries. She was taken to hospital and Moran was arrested within minutes.

Prosecutor Michael Auty told the court the victim had been left permanently scarred by the attack and was now fearful of walking anywhere alone because her
 confidence was so severely dented.

“The effects have been this: that both from her perspective and that of her wider family the smile that they all knew so well has gone,” Mr Auty said.

“Her face has been permanently affected. She bears visible scars that cut through and right across her lips.

Every time she eats, every time it’s cold, every time she does something simple like tries to apply lipstick, she’s reminded of that day.”

Mr Auty said that for her parents the attack had made real their “darkest fear” and “worst nightmare”.

He added: “She’s doing her level best to ensure that however wretched these events were they’ve not beaten her or broken her.”

Detective Chief Inspector Rob Griffin, who was in charge of the investigation, said Joseph Moran was “a vile predator” who took advantage of his victim’s isolation and vulnerability, and in a single moment changed her life
forever.