Rapist allowed out on bail

A RAPIST who attacked a young girl and sexually abused two others has been granted bail despite facing a long prison sentence.

Colin Tapp from Kenilworth had originally denied all the charges against him when he first appeared in court early last year.

But just days before his trial at Warwick Crown Court, his barrister asked for five of the charges to be put again.

Tapp, 52, then pleaded guilty to three charges of indecently assaulting two girls when they were aged about nine in the 1990s.

And he went on to admit two more recent charges of raping another girl of a similar age.

Prosecutor Matthew Brook said that each of the charges reflected single offences against the three girls.

Asking for the case to be adjourned for a pre-sentence report, John Edwards, defending, pointed out Tapp had been given a caution for an offence against a 14-year-old in the mid-90s.

“The defendant appreciates he is going to receive a significant sentence of imprisonment,” said Mr Edwards.

But he asked for Tapp to be granted bail ‘as an act of mercy’ because he was currently the sole carer for his 90-year-old mother – although other members of the family ‘will need to come into play’ when he is sent to prison.

Judge Richard Griffith-Jones agreed to grant Tapp bail with conditions that he does not contact any of his victims or another named person and does not have unsupervised contact with any other child.

But he told Tapp, who was ordered to register as a sex offender: “You have pleaded guilty to very serious offences for which, at the end of the day, there is only one sentence.”

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