March 3, 2016 1.33 pm This story is over 96 months old

Match.com rapist jailed for life after Lincolnshire attacks

‘Sexual predator’ behind bars: Jason Lawrance has been jailed for life for raping women he found on internet dating site Match.com, including victims in Lincolnshire.

“Sexual predator” and dad of three Jason Lawrance has been jailed for life for raping women he found on internet dating site Match.com, including victims in Lincolnshire.

Jason, aged 50, used two profiles to connect with thousands of women online and has been sentenced to a minimum jail term of 12 years and six months after he raped five women and attacked two more.

Described by judge Gregory Dickinson as “devious, manipulative and highly dangerous”, Lawrance committed the attacks just months after marrying a woman he met on the site.

Specifically, he had targeted widows and divorces, using profile names KeepItStraightToday and StraightManLooking to speak with hundreds of women at a time.

As previously reported, the assaults took place between June 2011 and November 2014 in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

Lawrance, from Hampshire, was arrested by Lincolnshire Police in July 2013 for the attempted rape of a victim in the county, but was let go by police without charge.

Lawrance, a former company director turned self-employed builder, had persuaded his victims to give him their personal contact details by claiming he could not upload a photo to his online profile.

When they asked to see his image, he said he would send one to their personal email instead and he would then move the conversation away from the Match.com messaging system.

On one occasion, he texted a woman following his attack, apologising for ‘hurting her’ and saying: “When you were crying out for me to stop I couldn’t, I’m so mad at myself xxx.”

The court heard that Lawrance raped another woman in the back of a van which he had parked in a field in Northamptonshire, while a third was attacked at her home while her son was asleep in a nearby bedroom.

He was arrested after a friend of a woman who was raped in Derbyshire in November 2014 got in touch with the police.