Another X-Factor contestant is going to be behind bars with a very heavy charge under his belt, with several accusations of systematic and sustained continual raping of women over a period of three decades.
Phillip Blackwell is a 55 year old former contestant, has been acutely named by the police as targeting women while they were walking alone at night. The authorities have been brazen enough to name him a ‘dangerous and manipulative sexual predator’
His short fame was in 2008 when his version of Spandau Ballet’s Gold failed to impress judges Cheryl, Louis and Simon. He was on tour with performing alongside other stars at the X-Factor Live events in 2009 which featured Alexandra Burke and JLS.
The alleged rape incidents happened expansively over Nuneaton, Warwickshire, and Birmingham in the late 1990s and in Cornwall between 2005 and 2019 – before and after his time on the show.
The charges span over a period of three decades, with 31 offences over 9 victims in total. The court has pinpointed his case as something vile, describing that ‘while maintaining a veneer of respectability’ in his community, he has secretly done his dark deeds.
Blackwell, of Launceston, Cornwall, was charged in January following a joint investigation between Warwickshire and West Midlands Police.
In February, he pleaded guilty to sex offences against five women, four of which occurred in Birmingham over 1997 and 1998 and one in Nuneaton in May 1998.
In each case, the young women were walking alone in the early hours when they were attacked from behind before being raped or subjected to other sexual offences. He admitted four counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, five counts of indecent assault and one count of false imprisonment.
Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Corfield said: ‘Blackwell offended on a huge scale. It is clear he is a dangerous and manipulative sexual predator who has caused untold misery to his victims for the purpose of his own sexual gratification.
He poses a serious danger to women. Today, after more than 20 years of offending, Blackwell’s past has caught up with him and now he must face the consequences of his actions. Most of the survivors of his crimes have had to wait many years for justice and will have been forced to relive the horrors Blackwell subjected them to.
All the women he has attacked and abused have shown immense courage and I hope they can take some comfort from this conviction.’
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Replaced!