A jury has convicted a drug dealer of plying women with sedatives and raping them as well as carrying out sex attacks on two teenage girls and violently assaulting a 35-year-old woman.
Shane Gibbs, 35, was found guilty of 15 sexual and violent offences at hotels and Airbnbs across Brighton and Hove by the jury at Hove Crown Court after a trial lasting almost six weeks.
Gibbs told the jury that he had taken care of the women when they were vulnerable, that he had been “brotherly” and that they had had sex with him willingly.
He said that he did not know that one of the girls was 15 and that her friend was 16 when he took them to a Brighton hotel for a night.
Jennifer Knight, prosecuting, told the jury that Gibbs had been selling drugs in the Brighton and Hove area and preyed on women with drug addictions as well as targeting the two teenagers.
Miss Knight said: “Shane Gibbs encouraged these women to spend time with him, taking them to locations they often considered to be luxurious and supplying them with generous quantities of a wide variety of drugs and alcohol.
“In this way, and by his use of the sedative drug GHB, he ensured that they became high on drugs to the point of passing out or so sedated as to be incapable of rational thought or action.
“He then raped and sexually assaulted six of the seven complainants, often when they were asleep or in a state where they were incapable of exercising any choice or of stopping him.”
After the verdicts today (Thursday 28 November), Judge Christine Henson remanded Gibbs in custody and told him that he would be sentenced on Thursday 14 March.
Earlier in the trial, Miss Knight that Gibbs met women in or took them to the Leonardo hotel, by Brighton railway station, the Hilton Metropole and Queen’s hotel, both on the seafront, and the Malmaison, at Brighton Marina.
Gibbs, also known as Blue, stayed in Airbnbs above Five Guys, at the Marina, and on Hove seafront, including in Grand Avenue.
Miss Knight said: “These events came to the attention of the police through several different reports.”
The parents of two schoolgirls reported their daughters missing just before Christmas last year – including one of the mothers who shared an icloud account with her daughter.
The shared icloud account showed pictures of the Marina, of a man and of drugs – and a photo showing one of the girls “bent over in a sexual position with the man behind her”.
The girls came home on Christmas Eve but went missing again three days later.
One of the mothers took to social media and shared a picture of the man photographed before Christmas. Miss Knight said: “She was given the name Shane Gibbs.”
Gibbs, who called himself Top G, told the jury that he had previously been a heavy drug user himself – and that he was not guilty of some of the charges because he had physically not been able to have sex.
He was caught on camera by one of his victims, a 16-year-old girl, who filmed TikTok-style videos on her phone although she had been “off her nut” and couldn’t remember filming all of them.
And while Gibbs claimed to have showered his victims with cash and kindness, jurors saw another clip in which he filmed himself throwing bank notes over the two unconscious teenagers in a hotel bed.
When he was finally arrested in a Travelodge hotel room in Portsmouth, Miss Knight said: “Police found Shane Gibbs surrounded by cash and a large amount of drugs.
“When the drugs seized from the room were later analysed, there were found to be quantities of cocaine, MDMA, methylamphetamine, ketamine, GBL and cannabis.”
He also had a blister pack of 10 sildenafil tablets, commonly known by the trade name Viagra.
Gibbs sacked his legal team after a jury had been sworn in last month and, at short notice, turned to David Spens, who once defended Brighton’s most famous former waitress, Cynthia Payne.
She became known as Madame Cyn or the “Luncheon Vouchers madam” and had previously been jailed for keeping a brothel.
But, in 1987, Mr Spens secured her acquittal after she was arrested for hosting a party to celebrate the end of shooting of the film Personal Services, telling the story of her life.
Gibbs was found not guilty of one count of rape but the jury at Hove convicted him of seven other counts of rape and five other sex attacks.
He was also found guilty of false imprisonment, intentional strangulation and assault causing one of his victims actual bodily harm (ABH).
The maximum penalty for rape is a life sentence. Guidelines set out various factors to be taken into account when suggesting which suggest that Gibbs could be jailed for between 10 and 19 years.
His other offences could mean an even longer overall sentence although the guidelines require judges to be mindful of “the overriding principle of totality” ensuring the overall sentence is “just and proportionate”.
This inadequate monster should be given the maximum sentence possible. What is all this nonsense about ‘the overriding principle of totality” ensuring the overall sentence is “just and proportionate”.’? He’s a vile, drug pushing, rapist and paedophile. The law in this country isn’t fit for purpose.
I completely understand your anger and frustration. The crimes are abhorrent, and many feel that no sentence could truly reflect the harm caused. However, the law seeks to balance punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation within a framework that applies equally to all, to prevent sentences from becoming vindictive rather than just. This principle doesn’t mean the law is inadequate but reflects the care needed to ensure fairness, even in cases of overwhelming public outrage.
Perhaps the real issue lies in public perceptions of what constitutes justice rather than the legal principles themselves? Food for thought.
I think the conclusion by the jury and the judge is fair and adequate to warrant a lengthy sentence. Due process is what makes trials so unique, and credit to the police and those who endeavour to bring this case to justice.
The severity of crimes is a violation of every precept of the law, and justice is greater than the law, and without justice, the law has no use to us.
Moving forward, our society is broken in such a way that if we don’t find methods and act swiftly and energetically to prevent the young or the succeeding generation from drug misuse and behaviours that are not conducive to good morals, our society is doomed.
In Brighton life is getting hard for young people, as I walk in the street corners, hedges, byways, and alleyways, I see young men and women shooting harmful substances in their veins which breaks my heart.
In the temporary Accommodations same thing. This is a societal failure and not personal.