Overview
- Prosecutors said Franks followed the woman's taxi in a white van and drove her to a secluded spot where he raped her, which he denied by claiming the encounter was consensual.
- The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before returning a unanimous guilty verdict for the 2017 attack.
- Franks was remanded in custody, placed on the sex offenders' register, and will be sentenced on October 30 as the judge ordered a probation risk assessment and warned to expect a substantial prison term.
- A police interview recorded by Leah Bedford was played to jurors, though the CPS had previously dropped her separate case after her death and Franks was formally acquitted; an inquest into her death is scheduled later this year.
- The complainant testified she withdrew her initial report after receiving death threats, including a petrol‑bomb message from fake accounts, and later reinstated it as police revisited the case; records show Franks has a lengthy criminal history, a 2023 sexual risk order, and an admitted escape from custody to be sentenced alongside the rape.