SWINDON RAPIST GIVEN LIFE FOR KIDNAPPING AND ASSAULT
RAPIST and armed robber Daniel Neill, who subjected a Swindon teenager to a terrifying knifepoint ordeal, has been given three life sentences.Neill, 23, who has spent eight of the last 10 years imprisoned for 190 previous convictions, raped the 18-year-old during the "mad, mad months" following his last release from jail.
He said he attacked the woman simply because she was in "the wrong place at the wrong time".
Giving him a life sentence for the rape, and two more for armed robberies that happened in South Wales, Judge John McNaught told him: "You represent a serious danger to the public.
I think you should be subject to supervision for the rest of your life." Neill, who has a son, sobbed throughout the hearing and apologised to his victim as he was led from court.
She and her relatives cried throughout the hearing as the details of her ordeal were recounted.
Neill started a month-long spree of crime on February 10 this year, which culminated in kidnap and rape.
On that day he stole a cash till from a shop, and nine days later took a BMW car from a dealership.
Thirteen days later he stole two cars in Cardiff, and robbed the Safeway supermarket in Barry, South Wales, of £914.
On March 2 he stole another car, and on March 6 robbed at gunpoint the Londis shop in Barry of £200.
While carrying out both shop robberies he wore a balaclava and carried a handgun, threatening to shoot the heads off shop employees, including a pregnant woman, if they did not give him cash.
But Neill's most horrific crime happened on February 28 in Swindon, when he kidnapped an 18-year-old in Toothill and raped her.
The victim had spent the evening with her boyfriend and was walking home when she noticed a silver Nova parked in a driveway with a man inside.
He started the engine, drove up next to her and asked her directions to the M4.
When she tried to help, he became threatening and produced an 8-inch kitchen knife, demanding she get in the car.
He then forced her to put a blanket over her head, took her to a remote spot near Wroughton, and subjected her to a serious sexual assault followed by rape, before dropping her off with a warning not to tell anyone.
He was arrested 11 days later, and DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
He admitted to the rape and pleaded guilty to related crimes, showing remorse during sentencing.
