'Controlling' Rapist Who Claimed to Suffer From 'Sexsomnia' as a Defense Learns Fate By Nicole Acosta

A convicted rapist who planned to argue he committed the crimes in his sleep has learned his fate.

Dean Final, 32, of Leicester, England, was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison on Tuesday, Aug. 5, after admitting he “physically, sexually and emotionally abused two former partners,” according to a press release from the Crown Prosecution Service.

Final previously pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and controlling or coercive behavior. Prosecutors said Final strangled and then raped one of the women he was dating in February 2024 after she challenged his “controlling behavior.”

Final “regularly stole or hid her phone or keys to restrict her movements, placed cameras around the house to control what she was doing, bombarded her with messages and accused her of cheating on him,” the release states.

Over the next two nights, Final “forced the victim into sexual activity when she was too terrified of further violence and control to refuse,” prosecutors said. She eventually escaped from the home and reported the incident to police.

“From very early on in this investigation it was apparent that Final wanted to completely control every aspect of the victim’s life,” Detective Constable Caitlin Duggan, from Leicestershire Police, said in the release.

When interviewed by investigators, the victim claimed that “Final’s eyes were closed while he raped her and that she thought he may have been asleep.” Prosecutors said this led them to believe Final could use it to claim he was affected by a condition known as “sexsomnia,”  a controversial and rarely accepted sleep disorder in which people allegedly commit sexual acts while asleep.

Prosecutors said the claim had no merit and after arguing it in court, that defense was excluded from the case. They even brought forward an expert in sleep disorders to disprove that claim.

According to the CPS, the defense “did submit a report to claim non-insane automatism” but it “did not include any medical expert opinion, just the observations made by the victim.” Prosecutors also pointed out that no diagnostic testing had been done on Final and their expert “could not currently agree on what diagnostic testing should look like.”

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Additionally, prosecutors put forward “evidence that in one of the rapes, Final had gone into a different room and picked up a sex toy before returning to rape the victim,” the release states. “We argued that these were conscious actions that were not consistent with someone operating in their sleep.”

Soon after, Final entered his guilty plea, prosecutors said. His sentence also includes convictions of assault, controlling and coercive behavior, non-fatal strangulation and criminal damage offenses committed against a second former partner in Lancashire, per the release.

“Dean Final has been exposed for what he really is — a violent, manipulative and controlling individual. He is where he belongs now, where he cannot do any more harm to women,” Charlotte Caulton-Scott from the Crown Prosecution Service said in the release.

In addition to the prison sentence, Final was issued with a restraining order and a sexual harm prevention order.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.