Serial rapist who forced change in the law after cross-examining his victims for days in court attacked woman after early jail release

• Milton Brown, 67, was jailed for total of 21 years in 1999 for raping three women
• Subjected two victims to five days of cross-examination after firing legal team
• Caused such outcry law was changed so victims can’t be questioned by attacker
• Released 14 years later but jailed on Monday for attempted rape in May 2020

A serial rapist who forced a change in the law after cross-examining his victims for days in court attacked woman after early release from jail.  

Milton Brown, 67, was jailed for a total of 21 years in 1999 for raping three women, including former girlfriend Susan McDonald who went on to kill herself.

Brown had fired his legal team during his Old Bailey trial and personally subjected two of his victims to five days of cross-examination.

Milton Brown, 67, was jailed for a total of 21 years in 1999 for raping three women, including former girlfriend Susan McDonald who went on to kill herself, before he was released from prison 14 years later

Such was the public outcry trial that the law was changed to safeguard victims from the practice of sex victims being questioned by their attacker in court.

Court-appointed lawyers are now drafted in to cross-examine victims in cases where a defendant has no legal team.

But Brown was released from prison after 14 years and given a council flat in Tottenham.

He had kept his former girlfriend Ms McDonald locked in his Camberwell flat for three months, sexually abused her and beat her with a nail studded plank.

Ms McDonald died of an overdose in 2008 aged 36.

In the same spree he attacked 38-year-old widow, Sandra Summers, and indecently assaulted a 31-year-old woman.

Ms Summers waived her right to anonymity as a victim of sexual offences and in an interview said she could not understand how the justice system allowed her to ‘be put through this’.

She said she was ‘raped again, emotionally, inside that witness box.’

Brown was convicted at Wood Green Crown Court on Monday of two counts of rape, assault by penetration and attempted rape of a woman over a four day period in early May 2020

Sentencing Brown to 21 years, Judge Leo Charles QC said: ‘You lack the factor that distinguishes man from beast, namely humanity.’

On Monday Brown was convicted by a jury at Wood Green Crown Court of two counts of rape, assault by penetration and attempted rape of a woman over a four day period in early May 2020.

He used drugs and threats of violence on the woman in a ‘prolonged’ ordeal, holding her in a headlock and leaving her fearing she would be killed.

William Eagleston, prosecuting, said: ‘This was a prolonged attack with violence and threats of violence.

‘There was the use of alcohol and drugs on the victim to facilitate the offence.

‘She was held in a headlock in a way she couldn’t breathe and felt she was going to die.

‘She felt she had to play smart and say “sorry” to Mr Brown.’

Jurors heard the crack addict now has 92 convictions for violence, dishonesty and sexual offences, including child molestation, spanning four decades.

Judge Joanna Greenberg QC remanded Brown in custody ahead of sentence on June 11 when she will assess his ‘dangerousness’.

Brown, of Lincoln Court, Hackney, denied two counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of assault by penetration but was unanimously convicted by the jury of ten women and two men.

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