Serial rapist Clifford Church given second life sentence

Clifford Ian Church, 63, lured a 25-year-old woman to his flat and forced her to submit to his sexual demands by hitting her to the floor and telling her “you are going to be hit every time you refuse”, Catherine Silverton told York Crown Court.

He also told her she needed teaching a lesson and locked them into the flat together.

She managed to escape naked into the Harrogate block of flats’ communal area.

Also naked but for a pair of socks, he pursued her and chased her up two flights of stairs, grabbed her as she desperately clung to a door frame and tried to drag her back to his flat until a resident, alerted by her screams, opened the door.

She had believed he was, in her words, a “nice old man”, said Ms Silverton.

Serial rapist Clifford Ian Church being interviewed by police (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Police revealed after the case that Church dressed himself and left the flat hurriedly after the rape. He had thrown the woman’s clothes into the communal area for her to collect.

Church was on parole from a life sentence for raping, attempting to rape and sexually assaulting a 37-year-old woman on the seafront in Redcar, in an incident that Judge Simon Hickey said was very similar to the 2025 rape.

He was also jailed for eight years in 1997 for rape, attempted rape and attempted indecent assault of a 16-year-old girl. In total he has eight offences of rape and attempted rape.

Church, formerly of Harrogate and now recalled to prison to continue serving his first life sentence, pleaded guilty to raping the 25-year-old woman and assaulting her.

Giving him a second life sentence and ordering him to serve a minimum of 12 years before he can be considered for parole, the judge said: “It was a prolonged, determined and sustained incident that must have left the 25-year-old victim terrified.”

Church is already on the sex offenders’ register for life.

After the rape on August 9, 2025, police launched a major hunt for Church, putting out urgent public appeals across York, North Yorkshire as well as Cleveland and West Yorkshire. 

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Ms Silverton said Church had met the latest victim, a homeless drug addict, in Leeds and after a couple of meetings persuaded her to come by bus with him to Harrogate on the excuse that she would be paid £100 and some drugs for bagging heroin and crack cocaine. 

He gave her £100 on the bus and never mentioned anything sexual until they were in the flat.  Then he locked the door and told her to get her clothes off. She refused and he hit her to the ground.

On September 19, police found Church, who had been drinking, at Bradford Interchange and arrested him. He had been released from the first life sentence on November 1, 2017.

For Church, Rebecca Randall said his best mitigation was his guilty plea which had spared the 25-year-old the ordeal of giving evidence.

He had become somewhat institutionalised and behind bars had become a laundry orderly. He also helped new prisoners by advising them on how to avoid self-harming.

He had long-term alcohol and drug addictions which he had tried to overcome after his release in 2017 but had not been able to access the help he needed.