‘Bondage obsessed’ man jailed after raping woman while wearing her stockings and suspenders

A “bondage obsessed” man who tied up his victim and then raped her while wearing her stockings and suspenders has been jailed for 17-and-a-half years.

Mark Conway, 54, broke into the woman’s home in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, on 5 February.

He initially crept into her bedroom where he put her knickers on his head.

Conway then put on the victim’s stockings and suspenders and tied the woman, in her 60s, to a chair using cable ties.

He wrapped gaffer tape over the woman’s mouth before telling her: “This is real. You’re going to do what I say.”

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He subjected the victim to a terrifying five-hour ordeal where he raped her and forced her to perform sex acts on him before fleeing her home.

She managed to escape and raised the alarm and police launched a huge manhunt for Conway who went on the run following the attack.

He was eventually arrested on 22 February at Royal Derby Hospital where he had been admitted using a fake name.

Conway told officers he was suicidal and raped the woman so he would have no alternative but to kill himself.

David Jackson, prosecuting, said the victim had been asleep on her sofa when she woke up and saw Conway, who she knew, standing over her.

He said: “He was wearing her underwear, having gone into her bedroom and put on her stockings and suspender belt and pants, with another item of underwear tied around his head.

“At first she thought it was a joke, but Conway, warning her not to struggle and told her ‘This is what I’m going to do. This is real. You’re going to do what I say.’”

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In a victim impact statement, the woman added: “I have lived it over and over again in my mind.

“It frightens me to feel this was planned and that he targeted me.”

David Everett, defending, said: “He accepts he is highly sexed.

“One previous relationship was with a woman who practiced bondage, and he had become obsessed with this, and had had this fantasy for a long time.”

On Wednesday Conway, of no fixed address, was jailed for 17-and-a-half years after admitting rape, false imprisonment and assault by penetration at Warwick Crown Court.

Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told him: “You decided that if you did something so terrible, you would have no alternative. It’s all about you, but you were too cowardly to do it.”