A convicted rapist and robber who twice attacked a South Cumbria mum in her own home after they met on a dating website has been jailed by a judge who concluded he posed a serious risk to the public.
David Grocer, 41, used an alias, Anton Brown, as he swapped messages with the woman before they met in person earlier this year.
During an extended stay at the Kendal house she shared with her child, Grocer hid her car keys and was challenged by the concerned female after she heard him using his real name during a phone call to a doctor.
Then, after becoming angry during an incident on August 28, Grocer told her to sit on her kitchen floor, took hold of a large bread knife and said: “I will treat you like a dog.”
He raised the blade to intimidate her before putting it down but then punched her three times in the face after she suggested they should go their separate ways and promised she wouldn’t report him.
“You can’t go to the police. I’ll kill you,” Grocer had said before trapping her arm in a door when she tried to flee.
There was further violence on September 7 when Grocer grabbed and punched the woman again, and repeatedly slapped a neighbour’s chest.
Grocer admitted actual bodily harm, and assaulting both the woman and a neighbour during the latter incident.
He also admitted two breaches of previously-imposed sex offender notification requirements – by staying for more than 12 hours at an address in which there was a person aged under 18, and a second by staying there for more than seven days without notifying the police.
The woman had spoke of being “absolutely terrified”, suffering nightmares and being fearful of him returning.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how Grocer, latterly of Wellington Street South, West Bromwich, had 89 previous offences to his name.
These included six separate robberies, between 1995 and 2007, and, in 2015, a rape in 2015 which resulted in a sentence for which he remains on licence until 2025.
Concluding that Grocer posed a risk of serious harm to the public, Recorder Tom Gilbart jailed Grocer for two years and imposed a three-year extended licence period. He also banned from contacting the woman for a decade.
“Your behaviour in these incidents was violent, controlling and threatening.
It was domestic abuse on two separate occasions while you were not only on licence but in breach of your notification requirements,” said Recorder Gilbart.
“You seem to view women as objects over whom you have control.”
