Tech entrepreneur Lawrence Jones was convicted of rape and sexual assault

A millionaire tech entrepreneur has been behind bars for 10 months after being convicted of sexually assaulting a former employee, it can be reported today.

Lawrence Jones, 55, was remanded in custody in January after a jury at Manchester Crown Court found him guilty of the offence.

On Thursday, reporting restrictions in the case were lifted following the conclusion of a second trial in which the former chief executive of UKFast was convicted of drug use and raping two women while he worked as a pianist in a hotel bar decades earlier.

He will be sentenced on all counts on December 1st.

Jones, from Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, founded the web hosting provider from a spare bedroom with his wife Gail in September 1999.

The company subsequently served more than 5,000 customers including the NHS, the Ministry of Defense and the Cabinet Office.

UKFast employed around 500 people, including many young people, and its success led to Jones becoming an MBE for services to the digital economy in 2015.

In January 2019, a former employee called police and made a series of allegations against Jones, including that he forced her to have sex in 2010.

A second woman then came forward and said Jones sexually assaulted her at a hotel on a business trip in 2013.

At Jones’ first trial, prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC told jurors: “On the way to the hotel in the back of a taxi, he (Jones) inappropriately remarked that he could see her dress.

“When they arrived at the hotel it emerged that although she had a separate room from Jones, it was part of the penthouse suite and adjoined a sitting area with an open bathroom and Mr Jones’ bedroom.”

The pair later had a drink in the hotel bar, where the complainant said she became upset when Jones asked intrusive questions about sexual acts with an ex-boyfriend, the court heard.

Ms Marshall continued: “After the bar they went back to the penthouse suite.

“He sat next to her on the sofa and approached her more and more persistently despite her clear resistance.

“He put his arm around her and started pulling her towards him. He repeatedly ignored (the complainant) who made it clear to him that she did not want to engage in such behavior.

“Things escalated and he started asking, ‘Let me see your panties.'” As he said this, he put his hands on her body, on her legs and tried with great force to push her legs apart, using his hands placed on the inside of her thighs.

“This caused her dress to ride up and when she tried to pull it down and get away, he tried to climb on top of her.”

The woman managed to escape from Jones’ clutches into her room and lock the door, the prosecutor said.

She later left the company as Jones “paid for her silence”, Ms Marshall said, with a £13,000 severance package that required her to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).

In his statement, Jones claimed the woman was “quickly drunk” and “flirtatious” in the hotel bar.

He believed she was a troublemaker and denied any wrongdoing.

Jones said she wasn’t hired because he was attracted to her and didn’t tell her she had to look like a “Bond girl.”

He said he did not create a sexual atmosphere in the workplace by being “handy” and “sensitive.”

Jones told Miss Marshall: “I put my hands on people’s shoulders, but only those I thought I had a really good relationship with. There was nothing sexual about what I did.

“I hugged people, that’s the kind of person I am.”

Jones was acquitted of the sexual allegations he faced in relation to the first complainant – one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.

He denied any sexual contact with the first complainant, apart from one occasion when he “crossed the line” at his family home.

Jones said they both became “very drunk” while drinking tequila, as did his wife, who became ill and went to bed.

He and the complainant then went from the swimming pool area to the steam room, where he said the complainant performed oral sex on him.

Jones admitted he had kept quiet about the incident to his wife, who appeared in court every day of the two trials to support her husband.

At Jones’ second trial this month, he denied attacking two women at his then-home in Salford in the early 1990s.

In 2021 and 2022, the women, who did not know each other, came forward to police and each made separate allegations of rape against the defendant.

One complainant described being given something to sniff which had an “immediate effect” on her, while the other described being given a glass of wine and a few puffs of what she believed to be cannabis act is excessively impaired.

Miss Marshall told the jury: “Both women were dazed and partially conscious but unable to respond.

“The effect of the medication was so great that even back then the women did not know which drug had been taken and what exactly had happened to them.”

Jurors in the second trial were not told about his sexual assault conviction earlier this year.

Ms. Jones covered her mouth with her hand as the jury foreman announced the unanimous verdicts after four hours of deliberations, while two of the defendant’s daughters wept in the public gallery.

Isla Chilton, senior district prosecutor in CPS North West’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offenses Unit, said: “Jones raped two women without considering the impact his actions would have on them.

“By denying the offenses he compounded the harm to women and sought to evade responsibility for his actions. The jury saw through his lies and found him guilty.

“I would like to thank the victims for supporting this prosecution and I hope this case will encourage others to seek justice. “It is never too late.”