Rapist attacked two more women after being let out of prison early

A rapist who was released halfway through his prison sentence attacked two more women – including a 77-year-old – just three weeks later.

Ashley Shuck, 24, launched a ’12-hour campaign of rape’ upon his release, during which he forced his way into an elderly victim’s home as she was making breakfast.

He raped the 77-year-old woman twice, then forced her to drive 100miles at knifepoint before letting her go.

The night before Shuck had sexually assaulted a 28-year-old mother after striking up a conversation with her in her front garden.

Shuck had been released after serving half of his eight-year sentence for raping an 18-year-old in 2012. Then, he had forced his victim to strip naked by a river bank before biting her neck and lower body.

Appearing at Worcester Crown Court on Monday for the two new crimes, Shuck was jailed for life, with a minimum of 10-and-a-half years.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright said: ‘Rape in any context was a serious offence, but rape of a randomly selected stranger not only strikes at the victims but at the community as a whole. It is bound to make lone women afraid on the streets and even in their homes.’

Shuck attacked the young mother on June 17 at her house in Kidderminster, after striking up a conversation. She invited him in for a drink but he later refused to leave, and when she went to sleep on the sofa bed he attacked her, putting his hand over her mouth.

The court heard she fought him off, but when she went to get a drink of water he held her head under the tap and sexually assaulted her again.

He was caught on CCTV leaving the victim’s home at 5am, cycling across the town to the home of the elderly woman he then targeted.

At around 7am on June 18 he knocked on her door and claimed to be a gas engineer, before pushing her back into her home and raping her twice. He then made her drive around country lanes until the evening.

‘He said he was trying to decide what to do with me,’ the elderly woman said in a victim impact statement. ‘I knew he was planning to kill me.’

She added that she did not think she would live long enough to fully recover from the ordeal.

His previous convictions include the rape of the 18-year-old in 2012, a burglary in 2010 where he put his hand over the mouth of a woman in her bedroom, and a conviction for having sex with a 13-year-old girl when he was 15.

West Mercia Police referred Shuck’s case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which then recommended that WMP conduct a local investigation into his release.

WMP Assistant Chief Constable Richard Moore said: ‘In this case serious further offences have been committed and it is essential that we examine all the circumstances and address any issues arising.