A self-proclaimed Leeds United ‘super fan’ has been jailed for 13 years for raping a teenage girl.
Today Alan Fawcett, 63, known as The Yellow Peril for his habit of wearing a garish jersey emblazoned with countless Leeds badges, was denounced by supporters following his conviction for four sample rape charges.
Fawcett, who served 22 years in the Army including tours of Northern Ireland, was locked up following a retrial at Northampton Crown Court.
The trial heard he subjected the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to rape on “a number of occasions.”
Fawcett had denied the charges and a jury failed to reach conclusive verdicts in April.
He was convicted at the retrial of four rapes over a period of three years.
Fawcett, of Wildern Lane, Collingtree, will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life. He was also banned from having any unsupervised contact with children.
Recorder Nicholas Syfret QC said: “Manipulative, controlling, obsessional. You exercised your power over her by threats, and loss of temper in such a way she was not able to break away.”
Speaking to the YEP yesterday, Gary Cooper, chairman of the Leeds United Supporters Trust said: “I didn’t know him and he certainly wasn’t a member of the Trust at all. But I always thought he was a bit of a weirdo because of the way he conducted himself at games. He acted like a kid, trying to get himself to the front all the time.
“We have got our genuine super fans at Leeds and they go about their business supporting the club. But this man turned up out of nowhere dressed like a canary and claimed he was a super fan.”
Mr Cooper added: “He was never regarded as a super fan by Leeds United supporters. He was just a self-publicist.