CARE HOME RAPE FIEND IS JAILED; 18.

Byline: SARAH CHAPMAN

A CARE worker who raped a vulnerable mentally ill woman in a Wirral residential home was jailed for 10 years yesterday.

Liverpool crown court Judge Bryn Holloway told rapist Craig Carstens he had committed the ``grossest breach of trust'' for indecently assaulting and eventually raping a sick woman in his care.

Carstens' victim, a 40-year-old woman who suffers from panic attacks and depression, wept as her attacker was led away from the dock to the cells.

He had been found guilty by a jury earlier this month of one count of rape and three counts of indecent assault.

During his five day trial prosecutor Geoffrey Lowe told the court that while Carstens, 42, was working in a Wirral residential home which cares for people suffering from mental illnesses, he used the pass key he had been trusted with to enter the victim's room. It was in October last year, he said, that Carstens - a father-of-one - indecently assaulted the woman three times while he worked the night shift.

On November 12, 2001, Carstens - formerly of Acorn Drive, Ellesmere Port - went into her room and raped the woman.

Judge Holloway sentenced Carstens, who came to this country from South Africa four years ago, to 10 years imprisonment for the offence of rape, with four years for each count of indecent assault to be served concurrently.

He warned him that his conviction could mean he will be deported after his prison term, and Judge Holloway put him on the Sex Offenders' Register for the rest of the time he spends in Britain.

The judge said Carstens had pretended that the sexual contact he had with his victim was consensual, to try to save his employment at the care home.

He told him: ``Before your trial, you told a pack of lies to the police, but the jury saw through your dishonest attempts to deny what you had done.

``Your conduct was the grossest breach of trust.

``You targeted this vulnerable woman to satisfy your sexual needs.''

Carstens' barrister, Eric Lamb, told the court that the defendant was previously a man of good character and had never been to prison before.

He said Carstens' wife and son have not been in contact with him since he was found guilty and added: ``The consequences of this matter for this defendant are utterly disastrous.''