Rapist won GBP7m lottery jackpot
Rapist won GBP7m lottery jackpot
A rapist turned out to be one of three winners to share GBP21m Lotto Extra jackpot provided the National Lottery. Iorworth Hoare managed to scoop GBP7 million while he was on temporary release staying at a Middlesbrough bail hostel.
News.scotsman.com reported that Iorworth Hoare, 52, who is serving a life sentence, was immediately moved to a closed prison after his win. Authorities decided to change his location in order to prevent his possible escape with the money won and to protect his own safety.
Hoare, a coal miner’s son, was reported to start his sex attacks in his 20s and was sentenced to a total of 18 years between 1973 and 1987. His criminal profile includes one rape, two attempted rapes and three indecent assaults. Hoare, formerly of Seacroft Gate, Leeds, was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court in 1989 for attempting to rape a 60-year-old woman in a park in the city.
Under Home Office guidelines prisoners in open conditions like on a day release or community project are allowed to take part in the lottery and play the football pools and buy Premium Bonds.
The Prison Service nor National Lottery organiser Camelot have no rights to withhold his money. But government department claimed that they limited the rapist to about GBP2 a day as so long as he stays in prison.
BBC reported that some spokespersons want to force Hoare to pay compensation to his victims with the help of his jackpot. Julie Bindel, a feminist writer and campaigner on violence against women, said that he should give the money to rape victims' support groups. "He should give every single penny of that money to rape crisis organisations. He has made a dreadful impact on somebody's life and he should show he has seen the errors of his ways," she said.
Dr Ian Edwards, lecturer in criminal law at the University of East Anglia, says victims often sue for any loss or harm they have suffered from their attacker. The case seem to be even more that attractive when the offender is rich.
According to BBC, Hoare is not the first lottery winner to be serving time. Former dustman Michael Carroll, 21, of Downham Market, Norfolk, who won a GBP9.7 million jackpot, was jailed last month for five months for various drugs offences after he breached a drugs testing and treatment order.
