Shamed millionaire Lawrence Jones jailed for 15 YEARS for drugging and raping two women and sexually assaulting another

Shamed millionaire businessman Lawrence Jones has been jailed for 15 YEARS for drugging and raping two women - and sexually assaulting another. The 55-year-old founder of Manchester tech company UK Fast attacked two women in the 1990s while he was a piano player in pubs and hotels across the city.

Manchester Crown Court heard how Jones, then in his 20s, called one woman a ‘pr*** tease’ before pouncing on her after he had given her a glass of red wine and they had shared a spliff. He then told the woman: “So do I have to teach you a lesson (or) are you just gonna let me f*** you.”

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Jones, from Hale Barns, went onto rape another woman in his flat after telling her she was ‘gorgeous’ before telling her to sniff from a medicine bottle containing clear liquid. The woman said she felt ‘helpless’ before Jones climbed on top of her.

The court heard that at a trial in January, he had also been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room during a business trip in the early 2010s. He ‘prised’ her legs apart, put his hands on her inner thigh and told her ‘let me see your knickers’.

A reporting restriction was imposed by a judge prohibiting the media from reporting on the case, so that the jury in his second trial - where he faced two counts of rape - would not be prejudiced by press coverage. The judge lifted the order after Jones was convicted of raping two women in the 1990s.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC said there was ‘significant planning’ in the offending, with ‘additional degradation’ for one of the victims. She also said there was an ‘imbalance of power’.

In a statement, one woman said