July 2014
Rapist jailed for 12 years
A man who brutally raped a teenage girl in a Blackpool park and tried to blame it on an alter ego has been jailed for 12 years.
Blake Richens was charming towards the drunken 15-year-old girl who found herself on the street one night and asked for help.
He invited her to a friend’s home, but on the way, launched a terrifying sex attack in Claremont Park.
He threatened to stab her and posed the question “Which would you prefer, life or death?”
Afterwards, he spoke of what his alter ego Steven had done, suggesting that other part of him was responsible for the crime. He also claimed to have been recently come out of jail for murder.
He told his victim: “When I’m Steven I’m nasty and when I’m Blake I’m nice.”
She managed to snatch a black woollen glove from him and take refuge in a friend’s house. His DNA was recovered from the glove.
Richens, 22 of Bond Street, Blackpool, had denied charges of rape, attempted rape and a serious sexual assault which occured one night last January.
He was today convicted on unanimous verdicts by a judge who said she wanted the victim to be told that when she realised the situation she was in, she dealt with it in a very brave and sensible fashion.
Judge Heather Lloyd told Richens: “She didn’t deserve in any way to be treated in such a terrifying fashion and I have no doubt the impact of this attack upon her will last for a long time.
“Being attacked in such a way is every woman’s worst nightmare.”
Richens had claimed that the sexual activity was fully consensual and that she had never said no.
He will be on the sex offenders register for life.
