Former policeman convicted of attempted rape

A former policeman was told yesterday to expect a lengthy prison sentence after he was convicted of attempted rape.

Lee Rackham, 33, showed no emotion as a jury of seven men and five women at Leeds Crown Court convicted him of attempted rape and two sexual assaults on three victims.

Mr Rackham, who was a serving officer with Humberside Police when the offences took place, was granted bail but told to expect a lengthy period behind bars.

Judge Scott Wolstenholme told Mr Rackham: "The guidelines are quite clear for the offence of attempted rape. There has to be a substantial custodial sentence. The length will depend on the material put before me on the sentencing hearing."

Mr Rackham was given conditional bail, which included reporting at a police station twice a week, and told to surrender his passport. He was told he would also have to sign the sex offenders' register. The court was told Mr Rackham tried to rape the woman after he befriended her while attending a domestic dispute at her East Yorkshire home.

The jury was told he went round to her house and pushed her against her kitchen units and tried to rape her while her son was strapped into his pushchair in a nearby room.

Mr Rackham, of Kent Road, Cottingham, East Yorkshire, denied the allegations.

The woman who was the victim of the attempted rape broke down in tears as she described the sex attack.

She said she got to know the officer following a domestic incident, which two officers, including Mr Rackham, were sent to her house to investigate.

In the days after, she claimed Mr Rackham made numerous phone calls to her home and on one occasion turned up in his police car while she was walking her dog.

"It got to the point where I thought I was being stalked," she told the jury.

Mr Rackham's convictions for sexual assault relate to incidents with two different women. The court was told he met one woman in a police station where the victim expressed interest in the forensic science service and Mr Rackham went round to her house with information.