June 2004 Rapist jailed for attack on girls A rapist who preyed on two disabled girls in Middlesbrough has been jailed for 10 years. Peter Longstaff, 29, of Burnside Avenue, Middlesbrough, was found guilty of rape, gross indecency and indecent assault between February and May 2003. Teesside Crown Court was told Longstaff dragged one 17-year-old girl to the floor and raped her as she was helpless to move her legs. Longstaff was ordered to register as a sex offender for life. Exposed himself Longstaff was arrested in June last year by the Cleveland Police child protection unit and denied the girls’ allegations. The 17-year-old girl told Teesside Crown Court that Longstaff warned her not to tell anybody, adding: “Who will believe you, you are disabled.” She said he often exposed himself to her. Speaking on a police video film, the girl said she was nursing her friend’s baby when Longstaff said: “Do you want kids when you’re older? Come here and we will make babies.” The girl said: “He got hold of me, pulled me onto the floor and he got on top of me. I screamed and I was scared and I said ‘Get off me please, I don’t want to do this’.” Her 15-year-old friend, who is also disabled, told police that Longstaff regularly exposed himself and he once asked her to touch him intimately. Judge Peter Fox QC told Longstaff on Tuesday that the sentence was high because of recent guidelines for such cases.