Convicted Wakefield child rapist hunted down after failing to appear at police station

A convicted child rapist who failed to attend the police station twice as part of a life-long order to monitor his whereabouts has been locked up again.
By Nick Frame
Published 31st Mar 2023, 11:45 BST
Updated 31st Mar 2023, 18:14 BST
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Dominic Fella was jailed in 2012 for multiple counts of rapes on a young girl and and put on the sex offenders register for life. By law, he is meant to attend at a police station on a weekly basis and inform them of any change of address.

The 32-year-old failed to attend on the correct day in January, then again in February. Registered as no fixed address, he was given emergency accommodation at Marsh Way House in Wakefield city centre in January, prosecutor Mark Thomas told Leeds Crown Court.

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Speaking to the outreach support worker from the homeless shelter, Fella told him he had no money to get to the designated police station, so a bus pass was provided, yet he still failed to show.

Dominic Fella was sent back to prison at Leeds Crown Court.Dominic Fella was sent back to prison at Leeds Crown Court.
Dominic Fella was sent back to prison at Leeds Crown Court.

Shortly after, he and his partner were also caught shoplifting from Boots in Wakefield, trying to bet away with £188 worth of items.

He was arrested and interviewed and gave no comments. Held on remand in HMP Leeds, he appeared in court via video link and admitted the theft and two counts of failing to adhere to the terms of the sex offenders register.

In mitigation, Adrian Pollard said Fella had fallen into serious heroin use and added: “This increased when he became homeless that. I suspect that when he was grateful he was arrested, that there was an end to all of this because it was a continual spiral downwards.”

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He said that Fellas had also been seriously injured after being attacked by a drug dealer with a crowbar.

Judge Simon Phillips KC jailed Fella for 18 months.

The court heard he was jailed for 42 months for the multiple rape offences in 2012. Having been released, he was jailed again in 2015 for breaching the terms of a sexual offence prevention order (SOPO), which he was given for life, after he was caught in the company of a 14-year-old girl.

Last year he was back before the courts again for another breach, after failing to notify the police he had left his current address, and was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.