Night prowler's five chilling words before sexually assaulting woman as she slept

DISTRESSING CONTENT WARNING Intruder Benjamin Guiver, 35, was handed a 20-year jail sentence after he was found guilty for carrying out the brutal assault at Swansea Crown Court

A night prowler who carried out a brutal sex attack on a woman who fell asleep in front of the TV said five chilling words before threatening to end her life.

Benjamin Guiver, 35, sneaked into the home of his victim - who cannot be named for legal reasons - in Wales as she dozed in the living room on May 24 while waiting for her partner to come home. Swansea Crown Court heard that she woke up to find the stranger kneeling beside her, and started screaming.

Prosecutor Robin Rouch told the court that the woman started fleeing as she saw the intruder, screaming "help me, help me", adding that Guiver caught up before grabbing and punching her. He then dragged her back into her home by her hair, sexually assaulted and strangled her.

The prosecutor said the woman "believed she was going to die" during the attack, saying Guiver had repeatedly told her "I'm going to kill you" after he carried out the assault. As he strangled her, the court heard that Guiver told her: "You’re going blue, I’m going to kill you."

Swansea Crown Court heard that the woman had been punched several times and had her head smashed repeatedly against a radiator before Guiver raped her. The victim was left severely bruised, bleeding, and lost a fingernail and tooth from the attack. She also needed morphine for the pain after the assault, as well as dental work and dentures.

The court heard she felt "relief" as her partner returned home that night. Guiver escaped through the window but was chased down by her son, who said: "I didn't want him to get away after the state I saw my mother in." He called the police and described her as being covered in blood, and said Guiver was trying to escape from the house.

Guiver also assaulted him by punching and choking him, before the police arrived just before 10.30pm. Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Briggs said: “She was clearly badly injured and was incredibly distressed, but at that point, we weren’t aware of the extent of the ordeal she had been put through.

“Our focus was on prioritising her care with the help of paramedics, and getting officers out on the street to find the suspect. Shortly after officers arrived at scene, a man by the name of Benjamin Guiver was arrested not far from the house.” It was later established by police that he had also attempted to enter another house in close proximity to the victim’s home a short while earlier.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the woman said the attack had "ruined my life" and left her a "shell" of a person she once was. She added: "I genuinely thought I was going to die." The court heard Guiver pleaded guilty to causing GBH with intent, trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence, assault by penetration and intentional strangulation when he appeared in court on July 10.

He also pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intentional strangulation in relation to the male victim. Guiver has a previous conviction for ABH in 2022 after he assaulted his female partner by kicking her in the head - and was given a 54-week imprisonment order.

Judge Geraint Walters described Guiver as a "violent and dangerous offender" and that nothing in his psychiatric report "begins to explain" what he did, or is connected to a "real" psychological illness. He sentenced Benjamin Guiver of Heol Glyndwr, Fishguard to 20 years - which includes a custodial term of 15 years and an extended licence period of five years.