Bristol rapist jailed indefinitely

A rapist who broke into the home of a woman he did not know and subjected her to an horrific sex attack then repeatedly stabbed her before he set fire to the house was jailed indefinitely today.

Deranged Ross Parsons, 33 – who was released from prison just nine days before the attack – threatened his victim with a kitchen knife and told her: ”don’t f***ing say anything or I will kill you”.

He subjected his terrified victim to a harrowing knife-point sexual assault in her own bedroom before he tied her to the bed with her clothes and electrical wires.

Parsons stuffed the 44-year-old woman’s mouth with clothes, bound her so she could not move and set fire to the bed she was lying on in her home in Bedminster, Bristol.

She frantically tried to escape but Parsons then launched a relentless knife attack – stabbing her more than 11 times in her chest, neck, face and head.

The woman was been left with the tip of the knife – taken from her kitchen – embedded in her head following the attack on September 30 last year.

Parsons, of Bristol, admitted a charge of attempted murder, rape, aggravated arson and aggravated burglary.

Jailing Parsons for life, with a minimum of 12 years, at Bristol Crown Court yesterday, Judge Neil Ford QC, described the attack as ”wicked”.

He said: ”In my judgement that was a calculated act of sadism. It was psychological systematic torturing of his victim.

”It is hard to imagine a more terrifying cruel and wicked act of offending.

”It is offending which has ruined that victims life and she may never repair from the harm that has been caused to her.

”She is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, she is haunted daily by what has been done to her. Her career is ruined. She lives in constant fear.”

Parsons had been out of prison on licence for just over a week, having served three-and-a-half years for robbery, assault, possession of an offensive weapon and theft.

He entered the house of his victim – who had been asleep alone in her bedroom – and inflicted the harrowing injuries through the sustained attack.

He took her personal possessions, including her bank cards and told her he would not harm her if she gave him her pin numbers.

She did and Parsons left her alone in her bedroom – before returning twice more to rape her, stab her, and attempt to burn her alive.

He set alight two fires in her home, one on the bed which she was tied to and another by stuffing lit clothes down the back of a radiator in her downstairs hallway.

The woman, who cannot be named, needed ten separate operations, including work on her lungs and plastic surgery to treat the ”life changing” injuries.

She was also left with post traumatic stress disorder following the incident.

The woman managed to flee from her burning rented property, which she had only moved into a few weeks before, and alerted a horrified neighbour who called police shortly before 5.30am on October 1.

Officers launched a massive manhunt and warned residents to lock their windows and doors, before Parsons was arrested two days after the attack, on October 3, in Knowle, Bristol.

Parsons refused to answer any questions in police interview but later pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, rape, arson, and aggravated burglary.

He was caught after tests found his DNA in semen left inside his victim, on clothes used to make a fire in her home and a finger print on one of her credit cards – which he used to withdraw #250 after the attack.

Michael Fitton QC, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court: ”She [his victim] was frightened of him.

”He was brandishing the kitchen knife so that she could see it. She was trying to tell him to go, to leave her alone.

”He used the knife to stab down at her body and her face. It felt to her that he was punching her but he was in fact stabbing her.

”She remembers thinking to herself that she was dying.”

He added that Parsons had 20 previous convictions dating back to 1994 including burglary, violence and theft.

Mitigating for Parsons, Simon Morgan told the court: ”His guilty pleas reflect his regret and remorse but other than that his instructions are not to present any other mitigation.

”He knows that being or saying sorry is not enough.”

Parsons, who refused to attend court for the hearing, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he serve a minimum term of 12 years.