Jury convicts dealer of drugging and raping women – Brighton and Hove News

A jury has convicted a drug dealer of administering tranquilizers to women, sexually assaulting two teenage girls and violently assaulting a 35-year-old woman.

Shane Gibbs, 35, was found guilty by a jury at Hove Crown Court of 15 sexual and violent offenses at hotels and Airbnbs in Brighton and Hove, after a trial that lasted almost six weeks.

Gibbs told the jury that he had cared for the women when they were vulnerable, that he had been “brotherly” and that they had had sex with him consensually.

He said he did not know one of the girls was 15 and her friend was 16 when he took them to a hotel in Brighton for the night.

Jennifer Knight, prosecuting, told the jury that Gibbs had sold drugs in the Brighton and Hove area and preyed on women with drug addictions and had also targeted the two teenagers.

Miss Knight said: “Shane Gibbs encouraged these women to spend time with him, taking them to locations they often considered luxurious and providing them with generous amounts of a wide variety of drugs and alcohol.

“In this way, and through his use of the tranquilizer drug GHB, he caused them to get so high on the drugs that they passed out or became so drugged that they were incapable of rational thought or action.

“He then raped and sexually assaulted six of the seven complainants, often while they were asleep or in a state where they could not make any choice or stop him.”

Following today’s (Thursday, November 28) verdicts, Judge Christine Henson remanded Gibbs in custody and informed him that he would be sentenced on Thursday, March 14.

Earlier in the trial, Miss Knight said Gibbs met or took women to the Leonardo hotel, near Brighton train station, the Hilton Metropole and Queen’s hotels, both on the seafront, and the Malmaison, in Brighton marina.

Gibbs, also known as Blue, stayed in Airbnbs above Five Guys, in the marina and on the seafront in Hove, also in Grand Avenue.

Miss Knight said: “These events came to the attention of police through several reports.”

The parents of two schoolgirls reported their daughters missing just before Christmas last year – including one mother who shared an iCloud account with her daughter.

The shared iCloud account contained photos of the marina, of a man and of drugs – and a photo showing one of the girls “bent over in a sexual position with the man behind her.”

The girls came home on Christmas Eve, but went missing again three days later.

One of the mothers took to social media and shared a photo of the man photographed before Christmas. Miss Knight said: “She was given the name Shane Gibbs.”

Gibbs, who called himself Top G, told the jury that he had previously been a heavy drug user himself – and that he was not guilty of some of the charges because he had not physically been able to have sex.

He was caught on camera by one of his victims, a 16-year-old girl, who filmed TikTok-style videos on her phone even though she was “crazy” and couldn’t remember filming them all.

And while Gibbs claimed to have showered his victims with cash and kindness, jurors saw another clip of him filming himself throwing banknotes over the two unconscious teenagers in a hotel bed.

When he was eventually arrested in a Travelodge hotel room in Portsmouth, Miss Knight said: “Police found Shane Gibbs surrounded by cash and a large quantity of drugs.

“When the drugs seized from the room were later analyzed they were found to contain quantities of cocaine, MDMA, methylamphetamine, ketamine, GBL and cannabis.”

He also had a blister pack containing 10 sildenafil tablets, commonly known by the trade name Viagra.

Gibbs fired his legal team after a jury was sworn in last month and on short notice turned to David Spens, who once defended Brighton’s most famous former waitress, Cynthia Payne.

She became known as Madame Cyn or the ‘Luncheon Vouchers madam’ and was previously imprisoned for running a brothel.

But in 1987, Spens secured her acquittal after being arrested for organizing a party to celebrate the end of filming of the film Personal Services, which told the story of her life.

Gibbs was found not guilty of one charge of rape, but the jury in Hove convicted him of seven other charges of rape and five other sexual assaults.

He was also found guilty of false imprisonment, intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) to one of his victims.

The maximum penalty for rape is life imprisonment. The guidelines set out several factors to be taken into account when suggesting, suggesting Gibbs could face a prison sentence of between 10 and 19 years.

His other offenses could mean an even longer total sentence, although the guidelines require judges to take into account “the overriding principle of totality” and ensure the overall sentence is “just and proportionate”.