June 2022

Dangerous’ Stoke-on-Trent child rapist caged for 10 years

A child rapist who repeatedly changes his name has been caged for more than 10 years.

32-year-old Rose Whitby – who is also known as Matthew Whitby – is back behind bars after previously being jailed for eight years in 2013.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court has heard that the defendant had been released from that sentence in 2017 before being recalled to prison.

The latest case relates to a further victim who came forward last year and told police she had been raped on multiple occasions by the defendant.

Whitby was this week handed a 15-and-a-half year extended jail sentence after admitting three charges of raping a child under the age of 13 in relation to the latest victim.

The defendant has been classed as ‘dangerous’ and must serve two-thirds of the 10-and-a-half year custodial sentence before she can be considered for parole.

Whitby used to be known as Mathue Babic, who lived in Thorpe Green, in Newstead, and back in 2013 was convicted of two rapes and the attempted rape of young women.

He was jailed alongside his dad – Milan Babic – who was handed a life sentence after being convicted of 40 serious sexual offences against eight females.

Mathue Babic’s younger brother – Mikorlee Babic – was jailed for three years after being convicted of one count of rape. Their mother – Deborah Babic – was later jailed for five years after threatening to kill one of her twisted husband’s victims.

The parents and younger son lived at James Brindley Close, in Etruria.

The court has this week heard that Whitby raped the child in a garden and on a canal bench. A second person held down the child as she was raped.

The victim still suffers with paranoia, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Prosecutor Ben Lawrence said: “The defendant would then hold her down while the other person raped her. She would cry while being raped. She says she was raped in this way on a lot of occasions.”

The victim reported the abuse in May, 2021 and the defendant denied the allegations. But on January 2 this year they flagged down police, said they wanted to be arrested for a rape, and would kill themselves by jumping off a bridge if not arrested.

Whitby has been handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Judge David Fletcher told the defendant: “These matters are much more serious than the matters you were convicted of in 2013. This was a particularly vulnerable child due to her extreme youth and circumstances. This was a campaign of rape. You are clearly a dangerous offender.”