Newmarket man jailed for raping woman he met on dating website

A Suffolk man who raped a woman he met on a dating website on their first date has been jailed for five years and six months.

Mark Saggs, who was 25, and the 18-year-old woman met on Tinder and exchanged text messages and pictures of a sexual nature before arranging to meet up, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Saggs, Recorder Jeremy Benson, said the woman had made it clear to him that she only wanted a “kiss and a cuddle” on their first date.

He said the victim had picked Saggs up from the fish and chip shop where he worked on the night in question and after sitting chatting in her car in a car park she had driven him back to his flat because he wanted to change out of his work clothes.

The woman sat down on a bed in the flat and she and Saggs had kissed and cuddled but he had then pinned her down on the bed and raped her.

The judge said the woman had been uncertain how the date would turn out and had arranged for a friend to ring her during the evening in case she needed an excuse to leave.

Recorder Benson said that after discovering that the victim was claiming he had raped her he had tried to persuade her not to report it but she had.

Saggs, now aged 29, of Corsican Pine Close, Newmarket, had denied rape but was convicted by a jury on Friday after a week long trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

The court heard that the offence happened at a flat in Newmarket in April 2017.

Saggs claimed the woman had put her hand down his trousers while they were in his flat and he hadn’t done anything she didn’t want him to do.

William Carter, prosecuting, said an aggravating feature of the case was that Saggs hadn’t worn a condom during the attack.

In addition to being jailed Saggs was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

Steven Dyble for Saggs said the rape was committed four years ago and his client hadn’t reoffended since then.

He said Saggs had a young child.