A MAN who broke a woman’s bones before kidnapping her and sexually assaulting her has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years.

Kevin Winn also held a knife to her throat, made death and rape threats, terrified her into silence by threats against her and her family and harassed her during a catalogue of offences.

Detective Constable Andrea Robinson, of York Serious Crime Team, said the woman had been forced to flee her home.

She said: “I sincerely hope that she can now put her ordeal behind her and start to rebuild her life.”

Gerald Hendron, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court how Winn abducted the woman and drove her screaming and crying for help out of York to a small village nearby where he sexually assaulted her.

A member of the public heard her cries and took the car’s numberplate, but when he heard police were after him, Winn terrified her into concealing what he had done to her.

Winn, 39, formerly of Etty Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to two sexual assaults, two charges of causing actual bodily harm and one each of kidnap, making threats to kill and harassment.

The kidnap occurred less than a month after he had received a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years for an offence of actual bodily harm.

Winn was jailed for eight-and-a -half-years for all the offences, including being made to serve the nine-month suspended prison sentence.

He was also put on the sex offenders’ register and banned from contacting the woman and her family directly or indirectly, both for life.

Mr Hendron said that in an incident before she was kidnapped, the woman suffered suspected fractured ribs when Winn pressed down on her back.

“She was screaming due to the extreme pain and struggling to breathe,” he said.

During his campaign of assaults on his victim, Winn broke one of her fingers by bending it backwards, held a knife to her throat and told her he would kill her.

He sexually assaulted her again less than a month after the kidnap, and he also sent her 46 text messages and made 37 calls to her, including death threats.

They included the words: “I am on my way”. After he arrived at her house, he was arrested, and has been in custody ever since.

His barrister Mark Ainsworth said: “There is little mitigation to be found.” He said Winn had no previous convictions for being violent towards women and the time he had spent on remand had had an impact upon him.

Det Con Robinson said outside agencies had helped the woman begin to rebuild her life and hoped that that outcome would help other victims to come forward and find help.