July 2023

Victim killed herself after a man raped her as she slept and filmed it

A ‘very vulnerable’ woman took her own life after she found a video of her partner raping her on his phone.

Tina, 24, was raped by Edward Weeks after she fell asleep with a teddy bear at his home  in Cwmbran, Torfaen, in December.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Tina found footage of the attack on Weeks’ phone the following day after he recorded the attack on motion-sensitive cameras set up in his bedroom.

Weeks, 33, was jailed for eight years after admitting rape.

Tina was described as being “child-like” with a number of mental difficulties and was dependent on Weeks during the course of their on-off five-year relationship.

Mr Cobbe described Miss Lewis as ‘very vulnerable’.

He said: ‘Ms Lewis suffered from autism, emotional dysregulation, self-harm, and at times suicidal. She presented as childlike and she carried a special teddy bear with her.’

Tina, who was autistic and described as “very vulnerable”, stayed at Weeks’ home just after Christmas, where he raped her after she fell asleep.

Weeks let Tina use his phone to play a game the next day when she found the video.

Mr Cobbe said it “was the processes that followed the complaint” that appeared to have had the most “extreme impact” on Tna

“In the weeks that followed she agonised about the process itself but also about the effect it was going to have on the defendant,” he added.

Tina’s sister, Saffron, described the pain of losing her sister in “such upsetting circumstances”.

She said Weeks had become Tina’s full-time carer and that she relied on him for many tasks.

“The effect on our family has been devastating. I have lost my best friend,” she said.

“Tina was the greatest inspiration of my life.”

Weeks admitted rape and assault by penetration and judge Jeremy Jenkins told him he had committed “a very wicked act”.

As well as his prison sentence, Weeks was placed on the sex offender register for life.