HENRY: LEONA LEWIS’S RAPIST COUSIN JAILED INDEFINITELY FOR ARMED ROBBERY

The cousin of X factor star Leona Lewis was jailed indefinitely today (Fri) for a terrifying armed robbery – 14 years after he was convicted of a notorious sex attack.

Adrian Henry, nicknamed Congo because of his stature, was just 14 when he led the street gang Venom in the brutal rape of an Austrian tourist who was thrown in a canal and left for dead in King’s Cross.

Days after his release from a 12 year sentence, he robbed a sauna and massage parlour in Islington, north London.

Weeks later he broke into a flat, attacked the occupants and stole £11,000.

Henry, Terry Heywood, 35, and an unknown third man targeted the Omega massage parlour in Kentish Town Road at around 4am on January 12, 2009.

The unknown man pulled out a gun and accomplice Terry Heywood, 35, threatened them with a knife, as they demanded staff hand over jewellery and valuables and empty money from a safe.

Salon owner Collette McGovern had the gun pointed at her as the robbers took watches, cash, cigarettes and jewellery, and £1,700 in takings.

Neena Crinnion, for the prosecution said: ‘Mr Henry was described by Mrs McGovern as appearing to orchestrate events.’

Describing the ordeal, Mrs McGovern: ‘It was a very frightening experience, they were all very aggressive, I had a gun pointed directly at me, and didn’t know if I was going to be shot or not.

‘All I could think of was my three children without a mum, I was scared of what they would do to us.’

She added: ‘I am sure they targeted us because they were all woman and we were open late when there were not many people about.’

Henry and Heywood then carried out a robbery with another accomplice on a flat in Jackson Road near Arsenal’s Emirates stadium in April 2009.

The gang barged in with their faces masked by balaclavas, attacked the three occupants and snatched £11,000 in cash and a Rolex watch.

Henry and two others were captured shortly after the Jackson Road robbery.

Henry was sentenced to six years at Blackfriars Crown Court, but Mr Heywood was not caught in connection with the Jackson Road robbery until September 2010.

When he was finally caught by police, he told officers: ‘I can’t believe you went to this much trouble for a drug dealer and some prostitutes.’

Handing Henry and indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) with a minimum term of five and-a-half years Judge Peter Clarke said Henry’s previous rape was a ‘notorious’ and ‘horrendous’ crime.

It was so serious is bore comparison to the child killers of James Bulger, carried out by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in 1993, he said.

‘It is inescapable to give passing comparison at least, as far as the youth is concerned, with Thompson and Venables,’ he said.

‘I am bound to say I find it difficult to come to the conclusion that I should certify that Mr Henry is not a danger to the public.’

The judge said that both robberies were ‘extremely serious’, and the victims of the Omega Sauna attack had been left with ‘psychological wounds’ that they would struggle to get over.

‘Collette McGovern looked down the barrel of a handgun and contemplated her own death,’ said the judge.

After describing Henry’s rape conviction, he said: ‘The salient feature of that is his final release on license took place on 20 November 2008.

‘It therefore means he was released less than two months before the Omega Sauna robbery took place.

His previous history, including the rape, was ‘inescapable’, he added.

Heywood was also sentenced to imprisonment for public protection with a minimum term of five-and-a-half years after the judge said both men posed a ‘significant risk to the public’.

Henry was a 6ft 1in tall 17-stone 14-year-old when he led members of the notorious
Venom gang who repeatedly raped Austrian student and mother of two Alexandra Sablatnig, then aged 33.

Learco Chindamo, the killer of headteacher Philip Lawrence was a member of the same gang.

Mrs Sablatnig, who later waived her right to anonymity, was followed down a canal tow path and attacked in Kings Cross.

She was stripped, beaten and raped repeatedly, before Henry threw her in to the canal.

Henry admitted rape as the trial was about to start and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1997 at the Old Bailey.

Passing sentence for the rape, judge Sir Lawrence Verney QC said: ‘This case is as horrific and revolting as any could be.

‘It contains aggravating features of exceptional wickedness which merit exceptional sentences.’

In mitigation today, Henry’s lawyer Nigel Lithman QC asked: ‘Is he to be branded a child rapist all his life?’

He said: ‘Although he has terrified these people he has not brutalised them.

‘They have not been savaged and attacked and brutalised in the way that happened when he was 14 years of age with a wholly innocent tourist.’

Henry, of (23) Hind House, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, north London; and Heywood, of Burgos Close, Croydon, south London; both admitted five charges of robbery, one of attempted robbery and possession of a firearm.

Heywood also admitted two further counts of robbery in relation to the Jackson Road burglary.

Heywood has been before the courts 18 times for 44 offences, including burglary and minor violence.

Ends