Retrial finds rapist guilty

12:36pm Tuesday 13th November 2001

A PERVERTED Orpington postman has been found guilty of rape and indecent assault for a second time, after campaigning for a retrial on a technicality.

David Luxford, aged 33, of Isabella Drive, inflicted a catalogue of sexual abuse on a 13-year-old girl in the late 1980s.

The victim, now aged 24, approached police with the allegations in January 2000. Luxford was found guilty of indecent assault and two charges of rape later that year and jailed for seven years.

His lawyers won a retrial on the grounds advice given to the jury, regarding evidence the victim had told partners of her abuse, could have been prejudicial to the defence case.

The victim was forced to relive her ordeal in the witness box at a second trial

The court again heard that keen cricketer Luxford was known to her family and first attacked her at a house in Kent in 1988, when he ordered her onto a sofa and raped her.

He would often pin her to the bed and force her to perform sex acts on him.

Judge Henry Blacksell QC told Luxford at Middlesex Crown Court: “These offences involved a terrible abuse of trust over a prolonged period.

“They also involved the deepest abuse and corruption of this young woman.”