May 2009 Pensioner gets ten years for raping teenager A RAPIST who plied his teenage victim with alcohol before assaulting her has been sentenced to ten years in prison. Ivan Victor Coates, 66, of Tunstall, near Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape against the girl. Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge Rodney Grant described Coates’ crimes as “wicked” and said he constituted a serious risk to young teenage girls. He said the offences “represented a course of conduct” towards the girl, which also included six other counts of rape. The court had heard that Coates carried out the offences over an eight-to-ten month period during the early Nineties. Jonathan Carroll, prosecuting, described how Coates plied her with alcohol, before carrying out the assaults. The girl eventually told her mother about the abuse but did not feel able to pursue the matter with police until last year. She has undergone counselling to try and come to terms with what happened. Sarah Wright for Coates, said there was another side to Coates. “He has sustained the friendship and loyalty of people in his community for many years,” she said. “He also has the support of his wife, who will have to bear the brunt of his custodial sentence alone. “His guilty plea shows a willingness to face up to what he has done.” Summing up, Judge Grant said he took into account Coates’ age and guilty plea. But he said that the victim’s youth, the “grooming” leading up to the crimes, the fact Coates plied his victim with alcohol and the subsequent trauma she went through, warranted a sentence of ten years. The judge said: “I have to think of the safety of the public.” Coates has signed the sex offenders’ register and is now banned from working with children.