January 2011
‘Depraved’ Llanelli rapist branded ‘a risk to any female’ is jailed indefinitely
A DEPRAVED Llanelli man with a “complete inability” to control his sexual desires has been sent to prison indefinitely for raping a young girl.
John Rundle Benney was sentenced yesterday at Swansea Crown Court — just over a year after being jailed at the same court for the rape of a woman.
Judge Paul Thomas QC said Benney, aged 58, of Grant Street, was a dangerous offender who posed a “future risk to any female of any age”.
Kevin Jones, prosecuting, told the court that Benney was jailed for two years in December 2009 after pleading guilty to raping a woman.
Later, detectives found that Benney had also raped a young girl — and he admitted this sex attack during a further court appearance last year.
Sentencing, Judge Thomas said reports prepared by probation officers and a psychiatrist showed that the defendant was a man with “distorted and depraved thinking” and an “unnaturally and dangerously high” sex drive.
“You have shown a complete inability to control your sexual desires,” the judge told him.
There was a significant risk, added the judge, that Benney would commit further serious offences in the future and cause serious harm to the public.
As a result, the only appropriate disposal was a term of imprisonment for public protection — a sentence intended to keep him “out of the way” for many years.
Judge Thomas ruled that Benney would have to spend a minimum of six years behind bars before becoming eligible to apply to the Parole Board for release on licence.
“Only when the Parole Board is satisfied that you need no longer be confined in custody for the protection of the public will it be able to direct your release,” he told the defendant.
“You are going to be in prison for a long time and when you come out — if you come out — you will be subject to stringent licensing conditions.”
The judge also directed that Benney must be registered for life as a sex offender.
The original sentence imposed on Benney in December 2009 was a term of four years, but for legal reasons this was later reduced by the Court of Appeal to one of two years
