An abattoir worker has been convicted of raping two prostitutes.

Patrick Colleran, 23, formerly of Kingswood, was charged with raping two women and twice raping a third.

A jury at Bristol Crown court took seven hours and 44 minutes to find Colleran not guilty yesterday of raping one woman but guilty on three charges of rape relating to the other two women.



The court heard that Colleran carried out the attacks between July and November last year as the women worked in St Paul's and Easton.

The first complainant told Bristol Crown Court her attacker held a blade to her neck and forced her to commit a sex act.

The second said her attacker claimed he had a gun before he raped her and smashed her over the head. The third said the man produced a knife, made her perform a sex act and then raped her.

Police found his DNA on one woman and all three later picked him out in a video ID parade. One of the women said her attacker had a black eye and Colleran conceded he had a black eye at the time.

During the six-day trial the court heard Colleran described by one victim as "clearly very young and quite calm".

Prosecutor Adam Vaitilingam told the court that Colleran told one victim he had a gun and she heard a clicking sound before he smashed her in the head with what seemed like a brick and raped her.

Colleran told the jury he started using prostitutes when he was 16 or 17 and paid women for sex in Bristol a number of times.

He said that around the age of 18 he started to use prostitutes in massage parlours as well as sex workers on the street in Stapleton Road and Warwick Road, Easton.

Colleran was arrested while working at the Tulip House abattoir in Westerleigh and made no comment when interviewed other than to make a statement in which he admitted being with prostitutes in the Stapleton Road area but always paying for them.

Trial judge Michael Roach adjourned the case for six weeks pending a psychiatric report on Colleran.

Source: Evening Post - Bristol,England,UK