WHEN serial rapist Jason Savage was jailed, his victims thought they could move on with their lives.
They were wrong.
As Savage, 29, was sent to prison – from which he may never be released – his girlfriend launched a sophisticated campaign to frame the women he abused.
Now, as Ceri Shipman, 25, starts a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for perverting the course of justice, they are hoping their ordeal is finally over.
One of the victims told the Mail: "I'm glad she has been sent to prison. I'm pleased with the outcome.
"It can all finally be put in the past now and we can finally move on with our lives.
"All this has been going on for three years since the trial.
"I knew the truth would come out in the end. She deserved to go to prison."
Shipman copied the women's Facebook accounts, creating fake pages, and wrote messages on them pretending Savage's victims had lied to get him locked up.
She handed the Facebook printouts to Savage's solicitors, who gave them to the police to investigate.
It led to the arrest of two of his victims, who had to endure 13 hours of questioning at a police station and were on bail for four months before Shipman's actions were discovered.
The women are still awaiting the return of their computers and phones, which were seized as part of the investigation.
The police found evidence of the copied Facebook pages in Shipman's recycling bin and the social network accounts were traced back to her home computer.
Despite this overwhelming evidence, she continued to deny the charges, eventually pleading guilty three years later.
Even as she faced her sentencing hearing yesterday, the judge revealed Shipman had written to him claiming Savage's victims were lying.
In a victim impact statement given to the judge, the women said: "This case has brought back what happened to us at the hands of Jason Savage.
"It has brought back the experience of having to give evidence and we have had anxieties about this and that it might lead to a retrial, where we might have had to give evidence again.
"The experience of being arrested was unpleasant and we felt like criminals."
They applauded as Shipman was led to the cells.
Judge Mark Bury told Shipman: "The is no precedent for a case like this.
"There is no other way of dealing with you than an immediate custodial sentence.
"For four months, while the police tried to sort this out, they (the victims) had to go through the trauma of not knowing if Jason Savage would be released from prison.
"One has to have regard to the sophistication and seriousness of your offending. The messages were unsubtle and designed to appear genuine."
Savage abused young women over a nine-year period in Hull before he was jailed in 2010.
He repeatedly beat two of his girlfriends and raped two other women and a teenage girl.
The amateur boxer tricked all his victims into trusting him, then attacked them away from any witnesses.
Savage's crimes only came to light because of the bravery of one of his girlfriends.
Savage beat her just two weeks before she gave birth to their child.
Hull Crown Court heard one of his former partners was attracted to him because he had a "nice smile", but within three weeks the violence began.
She told the court: "I moved in with him because he said it wouldn't happen again, but it did.
"I was too scared to call the police. I thought he would hurt me more or hurt my family. I thought I was going to die."
When she was six months pregnant with his child, Savage poured boiling water from a kettle over her, causing horrific burns to her head, shoulders and back.
He said he did it because she was being "quiet".
Savage forced her and another girlfriend to give him money and take out loans to enable him to buy a Toyota Celica and Subaru, threatening to break their legs if they refused.
In another attack, he hit her over the head with a sweeping brush so hard it broke.
Savage even attacked her parents' house, throwing a concrete block through their window when she was unable to give him money.
He told her he would petrol-bomb their home if she called the police.
Two weeks before she gave birth, she told him the relationship was over, while they were at Hessle Foreshore.
Savage attacked her, fracturing her cheekbone and eye socket.
She said: "I told him I didn't want to see him any more.
"He pinned me down by my throat. He was really aggressive.
"I was asking him to stop. I thought he was going to push me in the river.
"Then I felt a blow to my head and I collapsed on the floor."
Savage, of Ferensway, Hull city centre, took a 20-year-old woman back to his former flat in Baker Street, city centre, in 2007.
He stamped on her face, fracturing her cheek, which required surgery, and threw knives at her from a knife rack.
The woman, who was so traumatised she tried to take her own life, said: "One knife was 20cm in length and he just threw it at me and it struck my leg.
"I was petrified of him. I believe if it was not for these proceedings, he would have killed someone by now."
Savage met a 17-year-old girl on a night out in the city the same year.
They later met at a hotel, where he beat and raped her.
She said: "He started getting angry because he thought we were going to have sex and I changed my mind.
"He grabbed me by the throat and he bit my nose.
"He punched me in the face seven times, head-butted me and kicked me. He threw me into the bathroom and my face hit the sink.
"I was screaming for him to stop, hoping someone would hear me, but no one did."
Savage raped a 23-year-old woman in South Holderness in 2004, when he was in a relationship with one of his girlfriends.
She had met him in a nightclub and had thought he seemed "really nice" at first.
The woman said: "I said I didn't want to have sex with him and he said if I didn't, he would hit me.
"He became aggressive and started punching me. He punched and kicked me on the ground.
"He then followed me in his car and told me he would run me over if I didn't run fast enough. He drove right behind me and I certainly believed his threat."
Savage's offending started when he targeted a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2001.
He began dating the teenager and soon became violent towards her.
She said: "I loved him. After six months, he became aggressive towards me and would punch me if I talked to friends or men.
"He told me: 'You don't have any friends if you're going out with me'.
"He would beat me up if I didn't lose weight and would make me run around fields.
"He would always say he would change, but he never did."
She said he assaulted her in a hotel, punching her so badly she had to cover her face for two weeks.
In February 2004, Savage again punched her in the face, breaking two of her teeth.
It was only when he was sent to prison in August 2004 for driving offences that she was able to escape from him.
At one point Savage was dating three women at once, including Shipman.
Jailing him indefinitely, the judge told Savage he was a "vile" danger to women.
