October 2020 ‘Dangerous’ child rapist is jailed for 20 years A “dangerous” paedophile who raped a vulnerable and shy girl for months has been jailed for 20 years. Matthew Lee Scaife, 36, targeted and groomed the girl, York Crown Court heard. She was frightened of the 36-year-old, knowing he had stabbed a 16-year-old York teenager with a knife in the past, Judge Simon Hickey said. He also had convictions for carrying weapons. “I am certain you knew that she was a vulnerable girl and that is why you targeted her and groomed her,” the judge told Scaife. “You are, in my judgement, dangerous.” The paedophile had abused the child regularly for months. After the child told police what had happened to her, a doctor found she had injuries caused by “considerable force”, said the judge. Scaife, formerly of Acomb, and now more recently of Crown Terrace, Scarborough, forced the girl to go through the ordeal of giving evidence against him by denying four charges of rape, two of sexual assault, one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and two of having indecent images of children. A jury convicted him of all nine charges on the first day of the national lockdown in March at the end of a two-week trial at York Crown Court. He was jailed for 20 years, plus five years’ extended prison licence at the end of the sentence. During the extended prison licence he can be recalled to prison if he causes concern to the authorities. He was also made subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order. It will restrict his use of the internet and bans him from contacting or being with children. He was also and put on the sex offenders’ register for life.