Iorworth Hoare

Iorworth Hoare is a British sex offender and lottery winner from Leeds. In 1989 Hoare was sentenced to life in prison for raping a woman in Roundhay Park in 1988. This followed a series of sex attacks committed by Hoare between 1973 and 1987, for which he received prison sentences totalling 18 years.

On 7 August 2004, while on day release from a bail hostel, Hoare purchased a National Lottery ticket, which won him £7 million, as one of three tickets sharing a £21 million jackpot. Hoare was finally released on a life licence on 31 March 2005.^[1]

In 1989, when Hoare was originally sentenced for rape, he was not a wealthy man, and hence there was little sense in the victim pursuing a civil action for damages against him. Therefore, the victim claimed compensation, amounting to £5,000, from the government in the form of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board.

On 22 December 2004, within a few months of Hoare's lottery win becoming public, 16 years after the crime, and well outside the six-year time limit for tort set by the Limitation Act 1980, the victim pursued a civil action for damages against Hoare personally. This claim was struck out for being out of time by the High Court, in 2005, and by the Court of Appeal in 2006, following the case of Stubbings v Webb. However, the House of Lords, in 2008, in the case of A v Hoare held that the damages should be considered as personal injury and not tort, and therefore not subject to a fixed time limit. The victim was therefore awarded £50,000 in compensation, and Hoare was required to pay costs for both sides of around £800,000. ^[2] Hoare challenged the ruling in the European Court of Human Rights, but his claim was unsuccessful. ^[3] Hoare's victim, Shirley Woodman, waived her right to anonymity in 2012, when she received an MBE for her actions.^[4]

In 2016, Hoare was arrested on suspicion of flashing, and assaulting a police officer. The flashing charge was later dropped, but he was sentenced to a day in prison for resisting arrest.^[5]

Hoare has been subject to death threats as a result of his notoriety; in 2006, a man was jailed indefinitely for threatening to kill Hoare.^[6] In 2011, death threats were painted on the gate of his property, and his taxpayer-funded security operation was stepped up as a result.^[7][8][9]

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