A judge has imposed a life sentence on a rapist who had HIV and who plied four women with drink and drugs before raping them in hotels and Airbnbs in Brighton and Hove.
Shane Gibbs, 35, who called himself Blue and Top G, also carried out sex attacks on two others during a spree of offending over two months in late 2023.
At Hove Crown Court today (Friday 14 March) Judge Christine Henson told Gibbs that he was “a convicted violent sexual predator”.
She told him that he must serve a minimum term of 20 years in prison before he could even be considered for release – minus the 14 months that he has already spent behind bars on remand.
Earlier, Jennifer Knight, prosecuting, told the court that Gibbs had been assessed “as posing a very high risk of serious harm” to children and women in the future.
And the court heard from some of the victims and the mothers of two teenage girls targeted by Gibbs.
A woman who was attacked by Gibbs told the court: “I have memories, scars and health problems that I will be left with for a lifetime.”
She said that she had been a happy-go-lucky person but “my life is clouded by the repercussions of his behaviour”.
Gibbs caused her “anguish and sorrow” and had fooled her. He was, she said, “a jester in a knight’s armour” who had beaten her badly and left her unable to trust people.
When he strangled her, she couldn’t breathe and thought that she would die – “pleading with my eyes for him to stop” – adding: “I haven’t forgotten the kicks and punches that followed.”
She said: “He changed me when he gave me HIV.”
She said that it had caused problems with her immune system and she now had a spinal disease, adding: “I’m left with a life of medication and hospital appointments – a life that I no longer want to live. He took the best of me. He broke me.”
Ryan Richter, prosecuting, read a statement from one of the teenagers targeted by Gibbs. It said: “Having to take the HIV test was scary. It made me feel disgusting … Now, I never trust anyone – especially men.
“I wish this whole thing with Gibbs had never happened. He doesn’t care. He has a cold soul. How could he do that to anybody?”
Mr Richter read another victim’s statement, saying: “I feel violated by Shane Gibbs and I think that even the thought of him doing what he did to us is horrible.
“We were all so vulnerable and I look much younger than my age. This has opened my eyes to a lot.
“At first, I didn’t realise I had been raped … I blamed myself at first and my mental health declined … I was and I have since been diagnosed as having PTSD. I feel like a different person to who I was before Shane raped me.”
Miss Knight said that Gibbs was unwilling to accept his guilt – and the risk that he posed to women and girls was “serious and indeterminate”.
He was convicted unanimously by a jury at the end of November after a seven-week trial at Hove Crown Court before Judge Henson.
The jury heard that he violently attacked and drugged and raped several women over a couple of months at the end of 2023. Some victims were so stupefied that they only learnt that they had been raped later. He filmed some of the attacks.
He was caught after two of his victims – two schoolgirls – were reported missing by their parents. They were in a hotel room in Brighton that Gibbs had booked.
David Spens, defending, said that his client had no previous convictions for sexual offences or violence and had stayed clean of drugs in prison and was attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Mr Spens said: “The court could take the view that, for the two months over which he was committing these offences, they were out of character.”
The court didn’t take that view. Judge Henson said today: “Over the course of several months in 2023 you, Shane Gibbs, preyed upon vulnerable teenagers and women in the Brighton and Hove area.
“During that time, you were supplying drugs in the city and living a nomadic lifestyle moving between hotels and Airbnb properties.
“Your victims were particularly vulnerable due to addiction, their age or fragile mental health.
“You encouraged each of them to spent time with you, luring them with the offer and supply of free drugs and alcohol in locations they each considered to be luxurious.
“Alongside this, it is clear that on many occasions you put GHB (a date rape drug) in their drinks without their knowledge to ensure they were so high on drugs, passed out or sedated to be incapable of rational thought or action.
“You raped and sexually assaulted your victims who were either unconscious or unable to stop you due to the ingestion of drugs you had given them.
“Your behaviour to each of your victims was predatory and manipulative.
“You groomed young vulnerable teenagers with the offer of gifts, money, drugs and alcohol to entice them to spend time with you before drugging them in order to rape them.
“Many of your victims spoke of the physical pain they were in after you had viciously raped them.
“Others, who either saw you raping a friend at the time, powerless to help due to their incapacitated state through drugs, or on footage they viewed subsequently, described your behaviour as rough and violent.
“Despite your lack of similar offending, at the age of 35 you are now a convicted violent sexual predator.
“You refuse to acknowledge or admit your offences despite overwhelming evidence and the Jury verdicts. You continue to demonstrate a total lack of remorse.
“There is in my judgment, no reliable way of assessing if ever you would not be a danger to females.
“You caused serious physical harm to one of your victims by assaulting her with your fists and a dog lead as well as strangling her to the point she thought she would die.
“Although you were diagnosed with HIV in 2023, you failed to inform any of your victims and had unprotected sexual activity with each of them.
“This has added an additional psychological trauma to each of your victims who had to endure the wait following testing for themselves.
“Although this trial did not contain charges relating to you being responsible for infecting any of your victims with HIV, your reckless actions have added an additional trauma to your victims, worrying about whether they had contracted HIV.
“Your behaviour … was highly predatory, controlling and manipulative.
“Given the particular facts of this case and your persistent predatory behaviour, I cannot see how and when you would no longer pose a danger.
“In my judgment, the offences taken together are so serious that a life sentence is justified and therefore this is the sentence that must be passed.
“You will potentially remain a danger to others for the rest of your life.
“Discretionary life sentences (remain) a sentence of last resort, reserved for offending of the upmost gravity. This is such a case.”
Judge Henson told Gibbs that he would have to spend at least 20 years in prison although this would include the 431 days that he had already spent in custody.
The judge said: “The minimum term of the concurrent life sentences I impose therefore is 18 years 299 days.
“It is important to emphasise, so you and the public understand the position, that the minimum term is not a fixed term after which you will be automatically released but a minimum period which must be served before you are considered for release.
“After the minimum term is served, there is no guarantee you will be released at that time or any particular time thereafter.
“It is only if the Parole Board decides you are fit to be released that you will be released and, if so, on what conditions.”
After the case, the officer in charge, Detective Constable Vicki Blythe, said: “Shane Gibbs subjected these women to horrific ordeals but, thanks to their strength and determination, he has now faced justice.
“No jail sentence can make up for the trauma he has inflicted but I hope these six brave victims now have the time and space to move on with their lives.
“These women have been at the forefront of our minds throughout this complex investigation.
“I would like to thank all involved for helping to support them and put a dangerous predator behind bars.”
Detective Superintendent Ben Newman said: “From the moment we were made aware of Gibbs’s offending, we have worked tirelessly with our partners and other forces to protect his victims and ensure he was held to account for his crimes.
“Complex investigations such as these rely on the collaboration of a huge number of people and I would like to thank everyone involved for their outstanding work.
“Victims sit at the heart of all of our investigations and as a force we have undertaken a full review of how we investigate rape and other serious sexual offences to give us the best possible chance of catching offenders while supporting their victims.
“If you are a victim of sexual offending, please report to us in the confidence you will be heard and supported and we will do absolutely everything we can to secure the justice you deserve.”
Emma Lile, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Gibbs was a sexual predator who went around Brighton preying on vulnerable young women in pursuit of his own hideous purposes.
“We would like to extend a special thanks to the victims who came forward to report these crimes and gave evidence to a court about their horrific experiences.
“These convictions send a very clear message that the CPS, working alongside law enforcement, will relentlessly pursue justice and prosecute those who abuse or sexually exploit women.
“I encourage any victims of violence against women in girls in whatever form to report the crimes committed against them. It is never too late to seek justice. You are not alone and there is help available.”
