North Wales PoliceA convicted rapist has been jailed for life for sexually assaulting and beating a woman in a hospital toilet six months after his release from prison.
Lee James Mullen, 38, from Flint, attacked the woman in a cubicle at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan after she had visited a friend.
The attack only stopped when the woman’s husband checked on her, causing Mullen – who was ordered to serve a minimum term of seven years – to flee.
The victim, in her early 60s, said while “this could have happened to anyone, better it be me than a 90-year-old woman who may never recover or a young child or one of the ‘angels’ who walk the wards keeping us safe”.
Mullen had been released from prison on licence in June last year after being jailed for 11 years for raping and assaulting a woman in 2015.
He had been visiting an acquaintance at Glan Clwyd on 10 December and also taking cocaine and drinking alcohol.
He left the men’s toilets as the victim’s husband entered and followed her into the women’s.
She opened the cubicle door on hearing a man’s voice and Mullen put his hand over her mouth and said he “wanted sex”.
When she told him “no” he began punching her 25 to 30 times, even hitting her again after she lay on the floor “playing dead”.
He then sexually assaulted her.
She was left covered in blood with numerous bruises to her face and neck, as well as broken dentures.
‘Extremely dangerous sexual predator’
Mullen was arrested the morning after the attack after being traced by identification in a bag he left at the hospital.
The woman read her own personal statement in court and said: “I don’t think he was finished with what he wanted to do that night… My husband is my hero.”
She described the pain of missing family events in the run up to Christmas and then having to tell her grandchildren that “a nasty man” had caused her injuries but that “the police had got him”.
She said despite the physical and emotional toll of the attack she had returned to work a few weeks later.
“I was determined not to let him win,” she said, adding that although she believed she was going to die that night she would “rise like a phoenix from the ashes”.
Sentencing Mullen, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “This is one of those exceptional situations where a life sentence can be justified.
“You are an extremely dangerous sexual predator and the risk you pose to others is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.”
