‘Nightclub predator’ rapist joked about videos of his attacks in WhatsApp group

A rapist who filmed himself sexually assaulting women after they had fallen asleep or passed out may have more victims, police said, as they encouraged them to come forward.

Craig France, 34, would befriend young women in their late teens and early 20s while prowling Peterborough’s nightclub scene.

After luring them to ‘afterparties’ at his house, he would ply them with even more drink before subjecting them to sex attacks when they were ‘completely out of it’, as one described.

France’s home – and the hot tub which he would entice his victims into – was rigged with hidden cameras to capture his abuse.

His case features on the latest episode of Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody.

The two-part documentary, titled Nightclub Predator, begins tonight at 9pm and concludes at the same time tomorrow.

It reveals how France shared videos of some of his attacks, as well as photos of the aftermath, in a WhatsApp group with friends and relatives.

Viewers will see harrowing footage of him dragging one woman’s unconscious body from the hot tub, across a concrete patio and into the house.

France filmed himself attacking her as she lay lifeless on a bed and sent images into the group, prompting someone to reply jokingly: ‘It looks like a classic rape scene. She is out of it.’

DCI Helen Tebbit told Metro: ‘It really does highlight that there was nobody in his friendship or family group that was telling him his behaviour was wrong or flagging any issue with it whatsoever.

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‘There was no voice in his head to check what he was doing and to perhaps stop him.

‘Again, that’s where what’s featured in this show is important because if people are members of chat groups et cetera where somebody is behaving in this way, it is incumbent on all of us to put checks and balances in and question what somebody is doing.

‘I think we should all know what is right and wrong, and some of the material he was sharing, I would suggest, anyone should recognise there was something seriously wrong with what he was doing.’

The two-parter charts the progress of DCI Tebbit and her team’s investigation into France, from the initial complaint through to what would become the worst case of its kind detectives had seen.

Viewers follow officers visiting pubs and clubs in Peterborough to see if staff on the doors or behind the bars knew of him.

DCI Tebbit said: ‘The enquiries all came up with the same sort of thing really. He was very well-known.

‘They knew him by name, and they knew him by reputation, which was a friendly guy.

‘He would be very generous and buy people a lot of drinks, he paid for people’s taxis to get back to his house where he would have these parties.’

The first victim describes how France had raped her two years previously, and she later became aware he had filmed it.

She says the last thing she remembers was being given a shot before waking up in his bed without her clothes or any idea what had happened.

‘The worst part was just thinking no one’s going to believe me,’ she says in the show.

‘It doesn’t matter what I say, it doesn’t matter if I tell anyone, because even if I wanted to, no one’s going to believe me.

‘It’s like grooming. I’ll pretend to be your friend, will wait ‘til you let your guard down and – I don’t even know what happened after that.

‘I just had to sort of – not even guess, really – it’s just a big black hole in the middle.’

The case takes a twist when a second woman comes forward claiming to have been assaulted by France.

DCI Tebbit’s team scrambles to find evidence to support charges in relation to both complainants and ensure they can lock up a man who appears to be more dangerous the more they learn of him.

Digital investigators are horrified to discover that hidden within his devices are not only videos of the two known victims, but hundreds of other explicit videos of vulnerable young women, seemingly captured without their knowledge.

‘I think in total we’ve got in excess of 6,000 videos and images which are of a sexual nature,’ DCI Tebbit told Metro.

‘So, early on we could see that it was a constant situation for him, and we knew from the conversations we had with the clubs that he was out most weekends.

‘His lifestyle seemed to be he worked long hours in order to be able to be back for the weekends to do this. He probably lived for these activities over the course of the weekend.’

Her team found themselves in the unfamiliar position of having to visit women to inform them they were a victim of serious crime, rather than the other way around.

‘It’s extremely rare, certainly in cases of sexual violence, that we would be the ones to tell someone that we think this has happened to them,’ she added.

‘It was something we had to think about very carefully in terms of how we managed that approach and ensuring there was some wrap-around support for them as follow-up, recognising that police knocking on the door and saying this to somebody and then walking away has a significant impact.

‘It was a process which we took very seriously.’

France was jailed for 10 years and seven months in March after pleading guilty to rape, sexual assault, three counts of voyeurism and exposure following a trial at Cambridge Crown Court.

DCI Tebbit said that due to the amount of footage and the nature of France’s offending, as well as his job as a lorry driver which would have taken him around the country, it is possible there are further victims yet to be identified.

She said: ‘We now understand a lot more about him and the way in which he behaved and operated.

‘We’ve got a team of specialist officers that’s still working on the case who are available to take calls, and I think a lot of this is probably going to be about reassurance.

‘There are going to be a lot of people that know him because he was so well-known within the local area, but that doesn’t mean to say that they have been offended against.

‘We will take all information on board, and we will try and help work it through to help people understand whether there is anything that they need to be concerned about.’

At the end of the documentary, France’s first victim to come forward says: ‘If I was talking to somebody else who was going to report this, I would tell them just do it.

‘I know it’s scary and it feels impossible, and I know sometimes it can feel like you can’t even say it out loud, but there is always people to talk to.

‘No matter what, you have just got to get it out there – you have got to find that help – because it makes all the difference.’

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