DETECTIVES welcomed the seven year sentence handed to rapist Nicholas Howard. The 38-year-old was found guilty last month of raping a woman in 2019. This week, he was jailed for seven years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life. Howard had admitted raping the woman to both police, when he was interviewed in spring 2019 and to a close friend. Welcoming the sentence, Det Con Lou Kuklinski of Swindon CID said: “Howard’s actions were despicable and once charged still showed a blatant disregard for his victim by entering a not guilty plea, meaning that she had to go through the ordeal of a trial.