Labour Councillor (North Yorkshire) Raymond Coats – Court appearance for indecently assaulting a woman, gang sex, blackmail, death threats, lighter gas sniffing and sex for rent this man used them all in decades of perversion against young girls and a single mother.
Former Labour Councillor (North Yorkshire) Raymond Coates was charged along with his son, Philip Coats, in 2003 with child rape, using threats to procure a woman for sex and for inciting a woman to have sex with an animal. Coats junior was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his part in the father & son rape and bestiality double-act, although the trial of 76 year-old Raymond Coats was abandoned after the court ruled he was too ill to stand trial. Agreeing to the indefinite postponement, Judge Paul Hoffman said: "With enormous reluctance, and I emphasise that enormous reluctance because it is unsatisfactory that these very serious and nasty charges should remain unresolved, I am going to order a stay on this basis. If the evidence were to demonstrate a recovery, the stay can be revoked".
Detectives investigated allegations of sexual abuse and assault, made by a number of women, arrested Raymond Coates, 76, at his home in Huby, and his son Nigel, 46, at his home in Acomb, York, yesterday morning.
Raymond Coates was charged with committing an act of gross indecency against a woman aged under 16 at Scarborough between 1983 and 1988. He was also accused of indecently assaulting a woman aged over 16 at Scarborough between April and August 2002, and of indecently assaulting another woman aged over 16 at Scarborough between March and August 2002.
He faces a further joint charge of inciting another woman to commit a serious sexual act with an animal at Huby between 1987 and 1989. Philip Nigel Coates, of Ascot Way, Acomb, is jointly charged with inciting a woman to commit a serious sexual act with an animal at Huby between 1987 and 1989. He faces a further charge of procuring a woman to become a common prostitute at Huby between 1988 and 1995.
Police searched the Coates family home, Oaktree Sawmills, in Huby, and took away a number of items.
The family spoke of their shock at the arrests. Raymond Coates's wife, Wendy, 65, said: "It was a dreadful shock, but the police were very nice about it all. I think someone has got it in for us. I have been married to Raymond for 49 years and I would know if he had been involved in anything.
His daughter, Marilyn Smith, 41, said "It was a hell of a shock, especially to my dad. It's just crazy really." No regard was given for the victims of the Coates family.
A North Yorkshire Police spokesman told the Evening Press yesterday "Following allegations made by a number of women of sexual abuse and assault, North Yorkshire Police have been undertaking an inquiry based in Scarborough. Police officers attended an address in Huby and arrested a 76-year-old man on suspicion of committing a number of sexual offences. Police also attended an address in Acomb, York, and arrested a 46-year-old man on suspicion of committing a number of sexual offences."
Philip Coates, 46 at the time of the trial, of Ascot Way, Acomb, made life hell for two women by making them have sex with Raymond Coates, 76, Leeds Crown Court heard. The two men also got the younger of the two women to have sex with an animal.
Jailing him for 13 years, the honorary recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, said "I am satisfied you put these two women through sheer hell and not just for the period of offences. The consequences to them of these offences have been thoroughly traumatic. You did this to satisfy yours and your father's perverted lust and to secure material advantages from your father."
Minutes earlier a jury had unanimously convicted Philip Coates of three charges of procuring a woman to have sex with his father, one of attempted procurement and one of inciting a woman to commit a serious sex offence with an animal.
The judge said he regarded the offences as akin to rape and found it "extraordinary" that the maximum sentence for procurement was two years. He urged Parliament to change it.
During the trial the jury heard how, while Philip Coates was a corporal in the RAF police service, detectives investigated him on allegations that he forced a woman to be a prostitute and lived on the proceeds. Philip Coates denied the allegations under oath and there was no charge in the trial about it.
Raymond Coates, of Sawmills, Huby, was to have stood trial with his son on several sex allegations including inciting a woman to commit a sex act with an animal. But at the start of the trial his barrister, Philip Collier QC persuaded Judge Hoffman that he was unfit to stand trial because of his very poor mental and physical condition. The judge said that "with enormous reluctance, and I emphasise with enormous reluctance, because it is unsatisfactory that these very serious and nasty charges should remain unresolved, I am going to order a stay."
His decision meant that Raymond Coates does not have to face trial unless his health improves. He was neither acquitted nor convicted.
Mitigating for Philip Coates, Andrew Robertson QC said Raymond Coates seemed to have been the prime mover behind the animal sex offence.