Overview
- Judge Sean Morris called Franks a narcissistic, predatory danger to women and imposed a 20-year sexual harm prevention order with a minimum custodial term of eight years and nine months.
- The jury unanimously convicted Franks after about an hour and a half of deliberation; he refused to attend court in person and appeared via video link.
- Court reporting said Franks followed the victim’s taxi in a white van, drove her to a secluded location and raped her after she declined to go to his house.
- The victim initially withdrew her complaint after receiving death threats and abusive messages from fake accounts, later re-engaging with police after Leah Bedford’s allegation; officers praised her courage.
- The CPS had dropped the rape case linked to Leah after her death because she could not be cross-examined, and her family welcomed Franks’s jailing while an inquest into her death remains pending.