AN IPSWICH brothel owner who raped two teenagers after drugging them into a state of “complete helplessness” has been branded a danger to young girls and locked up indefinitely.

Both the girls had passed out after being given drinks and cigarettes by Mark Carroll and his partner Malika Bacon at their home and had woken to find Carroll raping them, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Carroll, 46, of Turret Lane, Ipswich, denied two offences of rape but was found guilty by a jury after a trial in May. Sentence was adjourned until yesterday for a pre-sentence report.

Sentencing Carroll to an indefinite prison sentence for public protection, Judge Rupert Overbury described him as a “sexual predator” who had seen his victims as objects he could use as he wished.

He said that as a result of either having their drinks spiked or being given some other intoxicant, the girls had ended up in a state of “submission and complete helplessness.”

Judge Overbury said Carroll posed a danger to young women and directed that he would have to serve seven years and 306 days before he could be considered for release by the parole board.

The judge said that Carroll would remain in prison until he was no longer considered a danger on his release and he would remain on licence for the rest of his life.

Bacon, 28, of Woodbridge Road, Ipswich had denied sexual assault by penetration on the 17-year-old girl but was found guilty by the same jury that convicted Carroll. She was jailed for 30 months.

Both Carroll and Bacon had admitted keeping a brothel in relation to the Aquarius massage parlour they ran in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, and they were each given four month jail terms to run concurrently with their other sentences.

During the couple’s trial the 17-year-old girl said that in February 2006 Carroll and Bacon had bought her drinks at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress and she had felt so drunk after just two drinks she felt there was something in them.

The couple had taken her back to their house where she had passed out. She had then woke up to find Bacon performing a sex act on her. After passing out again she awoke to find Carroll having sex with her.

The 15-year-old described going to the defendants’ home after meeting them in a local park in December 2008 and then passing out after being drugged by something in the drink or cigarettes she had been given. She had woken up to find Carroll having sex with her.

Samantha Leigh for Bacon said she was not a danger to the public and had not used any violence.

Bernard Eaton for Carroll said he had no history of sexual offending and the offences had been opportunistic.