Drug-hunting sex offender handed 22-year sentence for rampaging Castleford robberies
A convicted sex offender went on a rampage looking for drugs, bursting into two flats and attacking residents before trying to rob a man in the street.
Drunken Lewis Davidson-Bates was with another looking for “brown and white” - heroin and cocaine - in Castleford.
Davidson-Bates was handed a huge 22-year extended sentence at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting two counts of robbery and one of attempted robbery, stemming from a single night in 2023.
The 23-year-old is already serving a 13-year sentence he was given at Sheffield Crown Court earlier this year for raping a child under the age of 13.
The court heard that on January 5, 2023, Davidson-Bates and the second man knocked on the flat door of a man living just off Carlton Street. The victim had been watching TV when he got up to answer the door.
They inquired about “white and brown”, taken to mean drugs, but when the man said he did not have drugs and tried to close the door, they forced their way in.
They began assaulting the man, whom they had never met, by repeatedly punching him. They continued to ask for drugs. He eventually gave them £45 in cash and they left.
But the pair then forced their way into another flat in the same block, pushing the male resident backwards when he opened the door.
They beat him with a leg from a table that had been broken in the melee, and a metal object. They ransacked the property before leaving.
A short time later, they tried to steal a moped from a man on Carlton Street, saying it was theirs after the man refused to hand over cash from an ATM. The victim fought back and refused to hand over the bike, while they threatened to punch him.
He eventually broke free and was able to get away.
Davidson-Bates, previously of Skene Street, Aberdeen, appeared in court via video link from HMP Rye Hill in Northamptonshire, where he is serving his sentence for rape.
Mitigating, Mahdev Sachdev said his client had only been 21 at the time of the robbery offences and had been so drunk he was barely able to stand up.
He said Davidson-Bates was a drug addict and had been “struggling for months” prior to that night. He said that he was remorseful for his actions.
The judge, Recorder Tom Little KC said that he had “no hesitation” in finding that he was a dangerous offender.
He gave him an 18-year custodial sentence, with a four-year extended licence period.