Colin Ford jailed for rape in Whyteleafe park
A 59-year-old man has been jailed for 10 years for raping a woman in a Surrey park after they met during a night out.
Colin Ford, of Fernhurst Road, Croydon, south London, had denied raping the woman in her 20s in Whyteleafe Recreation Ground on 18 May last year.
He was found guilty of one charge of rape after a nine-day retrial at Guildford Crown Court.
The jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on another charge of rape and one of sexual assault.
Surrey Police said that during the day leading up to the rape, the victim had been socialising in Caterham and met Ford at a venue in the town for the first time.
He drove her to the recreation ground before the assault in the early hours of the morning.
Ford was placed on the sex offenders register and also received a sex offences prevention order, banning him from taking any female in a vehicle who was not aware of his conviction.
The retrial was ordered after another jury failed to reach a verdict last December.