A 42-year sentence has been imposed on a man who raped and sexually assaulted a number of women and girls in the Dover and Canterbury areas.
Ian Hamilton was charged with numerous sexual offences after Kent Police’s Cold Case Investigation Team reviewed a 1988 investigation into an attack on a girl in the village of Hersden. That in turn linked him to a 1992 report concerning abuse he inflicted on a child in Dover in the mid-1980s.
Detectives began tracing and interviewing people who had come into contact with Hamilton around that time, leading to a number of women revealing they had also been the victims of violence and sexual abuse at his hands.
In total, officers identified a further nine women who had been victims of sexual offences between 1977 and 2000, and a man who had been seriously assaulted by him in 1991.
As a result, more than 50 previously unreported offences were investigated and Hamilton was arrested at his home in Snodland in March 2024.
Following his arrest, a computer in his possession was found to contain more than 1,500 indecent images.
The 63 year old stood trial at Inner London Crown Court and was convicted by a jury of all 59 charges including rape, indecent assault and causing grievous bodily harm, having admitted possession of indecent images at the start of the trial.
On Friday 13 December 2024, he received a sentence of 42 years and one month. His Honour Judge Silas Reid described Hamilton as ‘cunning and sadistic’ and a ‘monster of the night’.
The judge said ‘What you have done with many women in this case has shaped their whole outlook on life. They live with the horrors you have put them through. All the victims have shown immense bravery to overcome the damage you have caused them.’Hopefully after today all of your victims can put you in their past.’
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Lee Neiles, said ‘Ian Hamilton raped and indecently assaulted girls and women throughout his life and, such was the terror he instilled in his victims, many felt unable to report the offences at the time. I would like to praise the victims’ courage in supporting this investigation and giving evidence at the trial. The case could not have been brought without their bravery. I would also like to pay tribute to the tenacity and commitment of our Cold Case Investigation Team in what was a complex and challenging case.’
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