Tonbridge: Serial Sex-Attacker Jailed

A sex attacker, who assaulted two of his victims on his wedding night, is behind bars for 17 years.

Owen Strong, 42, formerly of Mortley Close, Tonbridge, committed a string of sexual offences, including three rapes between 2009 and 2012.

Strong was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on 27 March. He had previously admitted carrying out offences between 2009 and 2012 of sexual assault, sexual activity with a child and taking indecent photographs but had denied three counts of rape. A jury found him guilty of the rapes in February.

In one instance, on his wedding night in August 2009, Strong sexually assaulted two women after they reluctantly let him into their hotel room so he could use a toilet. He later claimed it was a joke and wrote a letter of apology.

After a New Years' Eve party in Tonbridge on 1 January 2009 he sexually assaulted a 17 year-old girl while she slept.
Strong accidentally alerted another of his victims, when the flash of a camera he was using to photograph her woke her up. He was arrested and investigations led officers to charge him with three sexual assaults, of taking indecent images, indecent exposure and three incidents of rape.

Detective Sergeant Martin Williams from the Kent Police Public Protection Unit said: "There was a pattern to Strong's offending, which was that he preyed on victims who were vulnerable.

"Their vulnerability was either due to their age, or because they were asleep and not aware of his presence. Offenders such as Strong pose a very significant risk to society and I am delighted that the judge has recognised this by delivering a strong sentence."