Convicted rapist's wife to sue over lottery cash
August 12, 2004 - 9:00AM
The wife of a convicted rapist who scooped a STG7 million ($A18 million) lottery prize in Britain has threatened to sue him for a share of the cash, it was reported.
Irene Hoare, 55, wants to get hold of a share of Iorworth Hoare's windfall so she can give the cash to his victims, she says.
Mrs Hoare, from Middlesbrough, told The Sun that she did not realise her husband, whom she married in 1993 after she became a prison penpal, was a rapist.
Hoare told his wife he was a bank robber and she married him in a prison chapel, she claims, and the marriage foundered after he was moved to prisons too far away for her to visit him.
She said: "How the hell can a bastard like that be allowed to get his hands on STG7 million ($A18 million)? The only people who should get it are his victims. I feel so sorry for them.
"I'll try to give any money I get to deserving causes, like the women he attacked and organisations that look after rape victims."
Hoare bought the winning ticket while on day release.
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Although Mrs Hoare has not seen her husband for nine years, she could be entitled to a share of the Lotto winnings because she did not get a divorce.
She said that although she had to go to hospital to have her wedding ring sawn off because her joints had swollen, she eventually forgot about her husband and never got around to a divorce.
"I feel so stupid that I ever married him. I'd never have tied the knot if I had known all this. Thank God we never had any children," she said.
As well as his wife, the victims of the sex attacker may be able to claim a share of his fortune, legal experts said today.
Hoare, a coalminer's son, began a series of sex attacks while he was still in his 20s and was sentenced to a total of 18 years between 1973 and 1987.
His catalogue of crimes included one rape, two attempted rapes and three indecent assaults.
Hoare, formerly of Seacroft Gate, Leeds, was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court in 1989 for attempting to rape a 60-year-old woman in a park in the city.
Before the win Hoare was a category D prisoner at Leyhill open prison and was spending weekend leave at Middlesbrough. He has now been moved to a closed prison for "security and his own safety".
Since when is being a bastard good? lol