Colchester, Clacton: Why was he free to rape again?

Vicious sex beast Kevin Chambers was today (Tuesday) starting a life sentence for raping a 19-year-old woman less than a day after completing a six-year prison sentence for raping a woman in Clacton.

Now the Essex Probation Service has launched an investigation into how Chambers slipped through the net to re-offend so swiftly.

Chambers, 36, of Mile End Road, Colchester, attacked the woman in an underpass in Ipswich town centre on September 8, 1999.

A jury yesterday (Monday) convicted him on two counts of rape.

Ordering Chambers to serve a minimum of 12 years in prison, Judge Nicholas Beddard described him as a menace and said women were not safe while he walked the streets.

He said: "These were particularly brutal offences in which a young woman walking home was grabbed by you, forced down into a public subway, threatened and subjected to being raped twice over a period of several minutes."

At Ipswich Crown Court the judge said the experience so traumatised the victim that it was five days before she could go to the police - despite CCTV camera operators alerting police to the attack as it happened.

The operator continued to track Chambers and shortly afterwards police stopped and questioned him.

At that time the officers did not know the full story and Chambers was allowed to go. He was arrested in Colchester on September 10 last year.

During police interviews Chambers denied being in the St Matthew's Street underpass, but a facial analysis expert concluded he was most likely to be the man on the subway video.

Judge Beddard praised the CCTV operator, saying without her alertness Chambers would have disappeared without trace.

He said: "There is no forensic evidence. It is really due to her and the speed with which the police operated that this extremely dangerous man was apprehended so quickly."

Chambers will be placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

He had admitted rape at Chelmsford Crown Court in June 1996 after a brutal attack in Clacton and has a string of previous convictions for theft and firearms offences.

Rapist - Kevin Chambers received a life sentence

Chambers struck just hours after release

Within hours of his release from prison convicted rapist Kevin Chambers struck again.

And Essex Probation Service - to a large extent responsible for him - has launched an investigation into what went wrong.

Chambers walked out of the doors of Wormwood Scrubs on the morning of Tuesday, September 7, after serving three years and three months of a six-year sentence.

At 12.45am the following morning he twice raped a woman in an Ipswich underpass.

Having failed to co-operate with programmes planned for him during his prison sentence, he had been refused parole.

So Chambers, 36, formerly of Mile End Road, Colchester, served the maximum time the Prison Service was able to hold him.

Accommodation had been sought for Chambers by probation staff towards the end of his imprisonment.

But as a non-parolee he was in a position to complicate any planning by changing his mind as where he wanted to go after his release.

And being a non-parolee meant he did not have to comply with additional stringent conditions which would have been applied under parole.

Police, prison and probation services are all involved in supervising released offenders to some extent but are unable to dictate their movements.

A risk management conference which included police intelligence, Essex Probation Service and housing took place in August last year.

It was agreed that Chambers would report on his day of release to Colchester probation office and be assisted to find accommodation.

He attended and the afternoon was spent searching unsuccesfully for somewhere for him to stay.

At 5.15pm he was found a room at Chequers Hotel in Ipswich which was considered preferable to him spending the night on the streets.

But no agencies in Ipswich, including police, probation service or the hotel itself was given any warning of his background.

Instead, the senior Essex probation officer dealing with Chambers informed the assistant chief probation officer the next morning of his address.

In the meantime, Chambers had returned to the Colchester office hours after twice raping a girl in an Ipswich underpass.

Liz Hill, Essex chief probation officer, said: "This is an appalling offence committed by a man determined not to co-operate with authorities either in prison or in the community.

"The community is safer when an ex-prisoner is on parole licence. Supervision plans can be made well in advance, with a risk reduction strategy, including treatment and place of address, that has to be agreed to and complied with by the offender.

"However, this man's unco-operative behaviour in prison would have meant that the Parole Board would not be willing to release him on this early kind of licence."

She added: "In all the potentially dangerous offender cases that come to Essex, the police and probation services work hard to protect their community.When an offence takes place a detailed examination of the facts takes place.

"The miserable reality also, however, is that you cannot always prevent further crime. In this case the man was free to go where he wanted - with tragic results for a young woman."

Chambers put his victim through hell

The detective responsible for leading the hunt for Chambers after he raped a teenager in Clacton today described him as "an evil man".

Former Det Chief Insp Terry Gardiner, who is now retired, said that he was not at all surprised that Chambers had repeated his crime on release from prison.

"He is - and always will be - a danger to women and should be locked up for life," he said.

"I said when he was convicted of the Clacton rape that it would happen again. Unfortunately I have been proved right - although I am not proud of that. This man has got to be stopped."

Mr Gardiner recalled the horrific details of the rape of the 18-year-old - who he said had done nothing to lead Chambers on.

"He selected her at a club in the town and stalked her for two miles before dragging her into an alleyway and violently raping her," he added.

"He denied his crime throughout and even threatened the police officers when they were taking his fingerprints.

"Chambers denied being in Clacton that day - even though he was captured on the club's CCTV with a date and time. He was picked out in an identity parade, and from DNA tests the chances of him not being the attacker were millions to one - but he still denied it right up until his trial."

Mr Gardiner said the attack was so violent that the teenager's earrings were ripped out as he forced her to the ground. Originally the judge who sentenced Chambers told him that he was considering a life sentence - the maximum for rape.

However, he deferred sentence for three weeks for the defence to come back with legal arguments on why he should not do so. In the end Chambers got six years.

Mr Gardiner said he drove the victim's mother to the court that day.

"When Chambers got six years I could not look at the woman - I was totally stunned and embarrassed," he said. I did not know what to say to her, I just felt she and her daughter had been let down."

Mr Gardiner said it had been one of those rare cases of stranger rape. Chambers had only been caught with help from people in Clacton and the club's CCTV system. He was then tracked to an address in Colchester and arrested.

By continually denying the offence Mr Gardiner said he put his victim through hell.

"At any time he could have done the honourable thing, but he didn't," he added.

"I told the defence solicitor her client would always be a danger to women - and I stand by that."

Forced to relive terror

The victim of serial rapist Kevin Chambers was forced to relive her horrific ordeal in court.

In the face of overwhelming evidence against him, Chambers maintained his innocence despite - and perhaps because of - the trauma it would cause his young victim.

Under the 1997 Crime Sentences Act which brought in the so-called two-strikes-and-out policy, Chambers, already with one rape conviction, faced an automatic life sentence.

Chambers knew his crime was such that the court was likely to impose a maximum prison term.

If a judge levies a life sentence he can still vary the tariff - the amount of time which a prisoner must serve before he is made eligible for parole.

Because he decided to take the case to court his victim was forced to relive her ordeal in giving evidence.

A victim support spokeswoman stressed trials could cause enormous trauma to witnesses who have to relive their ordeal.

The spokeswoman said: "Victims of rape in particular say giving evidence is like being raped for a second time. Many rapists hope that the victim will not be able, either physically or emotionally, to give evidence."

But she added much had been done to reduce the trauma of the trial on victims.

Horror never goes away

The teenager who was raped by Chambers in Clacton agreed to meet This Is Essex partner the Gazette after he was behind bars.

Although ten months had passed since the night of August 19, 1995, when her attacker had selected her from those enjoying an evening out at Fibbers night club the scars were still very much apparent.

She was a very brave woman.

She did everything she could to help catch the man responsible. She went through the very personal examination, hours of questioning and managed to give a very accurate description which helped track down Chambers.

Since her ordeal the youngster had twice changed jobs and was still conscious of what she wore.

She was working in an all-female environment looking after elderly women at a home where she felt safe.

The 19-year-old told how she did her best to forget what had happened - but it never went away.

She had been wary of the police before the incident and even thought about whether to report it. It was only because someone saw her in distress and persuaded her to do so that she went to the station.

The girl praised the police for the way they had dealt with the situation and helped her through such a traumatic time.

She told how the rape ordeal seemed to take forever - even though it could have only lasted minutes.

She also relived the horror of picking Chambers out at an ID parade. Scared that she would not recognise him having tried to forget his face - the recognition was instant.

"His face had disappeared from my mind - but as soon as I saw him I knew it was him," she said.

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