After admitting to the heinous crime of rape, a man learned he may have gotten way more than he bargained for from his victim. In fact, when authorities told him just what he might have contracted, the rapist collapsed.
According to an unnamed woman, Richard Thomas, a 27-year-old man from Leigh in Greater Manchester, England, let himself into her home uninvited in the middle of the night, and she awoke to find him raping her. Although Thomas had no recollection of the assault, he knew the woman who had accused him of attacking her, and he said she “would not lie.”
“She tells the truth. If she says I have done it, I have done it,” Thomas said when he was told about the attack, according to his lawyer Virginia Hayton. There was another reason Thomas couldn’t seem to remember the incident but believed he had done it. The night in question, he had not only drunk alcohol in excess but had also consumed drugs as well. “He was arrested and interviewed and said he had been drinking heavily, taken cocaine and ecstasy, and could not recall the incident,” Harry Pepper with the prosecution team explained.
Before waking up to the rape, Thomas’s victim had taken a sleeping tablet, according to BBC, which might explain her reaction upon waking during the assault. “She froze and no words were exchanged. He pulled up his shorts and left,” Pepper said. The court also heard that the woman was ill, but Thomas apparently didn’t know to what extent.
When police informed him of the woman’s medical status, he collapsed. His victim was HIV positive, which meant the rapist might have contracted the deadly, incurable virus as a direct result of the sex attack he carried out on the woman. Upon hearing the news, a shocked Thomas asked to be taken to the hospital, the Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Although Richard Thomas had previous convictions, none were for sexual offenses. According to Virginia Hayton, he was “remorseful” and “cannot understand why he did it and it is troubling him.” However, it would seem that — should his version of events be believed — drugs and alcohol were a huge contributing factor, and the abuse of both wasn’t a new problem for Thomas.
Instead, “he started using cannabis at the age of nine, drinking heavily at the age of 11, became addicted to ecstasy and cocaine at 13, and was put in care the following year,” Hayton revealed. Even so, she seemed to have little sympathy for Thomas and any fears he had over contracting HIV. “It is his own fault, if he had not committed this offense he would not have placed himself in this position,” Hayton said.
Richard Thomas pleaded guilty to raping the woman and was sentenced to five years and four months by Judge Mark Brown, who said that Thomas had committed “this dreadful offense” while his victim lay asleep in her own home after taking a sleeping tablet, leaving her distressed and anxious. Thomas was also ordered to “sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life,” according to Daily Mail.
In addition to receiving jail time and facing the possibility of contracting the deadly virus, Richard Thomas faced other consequences for his action. It was reported that he had been “trying to contact his family” but they wanted “nothing to do with him.” Being sentenced to jail, he would also be away from his partner, their young daughter, and his two other older daughters from previous relationships.
The next time you hear that drug abuse is a victimless crime, remember this story because it’s undeniable that drugs played a huge part in this man’s actions. If going on a drug and alcohol-fueled bender sounds like a good time, remember Richard Thomas. Although the results of his HIV test don’t appear to have ever been released to the public — likely due to privacy reasons — I guarantee this man wishes he had made different choices.
Instead, Richard Thomas chose to poison his own mind with alcohol, cocaine, and ecstasy — to the point it allegedly obliterated his memory — and he ruined multiple lives as a result, including his victim’s, his own, and that of his loved ones, who couldn’t even stand to talk to him after what he had done. That’s a risk you take when you choose to flood your system with substances that are associated with violent behavior and crime. And, this is exactly why Richard Thomas received no sympathy. He got what he deserved after his selfish and dreadful actions.
