Rapist jailed for sex attacks on three women in Borders town

Stuart Young assaulted the victim who had come to his aid before claiming during a trial that she had made sexual advances to him.

The 64-year-old woman, who was one of three victims of sex crimes committed by him, told the High Court in Edinburgh: "I have never heard anything as ridiculous in my life. It's all totally wrong."

Young carried out a catalogue of sexual offending against women that spanned five years in a Scottish Borders town.

He subjected one woman to repeated rapes in an ordeal that included degrading treatment and assault to the danger of her life.

Young (41) formerly of Church Street, Eyemouth, in Berwickshire, also molested a teenager in a further sex attack.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: "Looked at as a whole these convictions show a pattern of serious sexual offending."

Lady Haldane said: "You were convicted by a jury unanimously of four charges covering a spectrum of sexual offending."

The judge said that a statement provided by the rape victim showed that the effects of his actions on her have been "profound and long lasting".

Lady Haldane said: "Your culpability is high and the harm you have caused is significant."

A background report prepared on the rapist said he had shown negative and hostile attitudes to women.

The court heard that Young continued to emphatically protest his innocence and claim that the allegations levelled against him were motivated by malice, grudge or a desire for compensation.

Lady Haldane ordered that he should be kept under supervision for a further two year period when he will be on licence and can be returned to prison if he breaches its conditions.

The court heard that Young's first victim had opened her home to him to let him stay overnight when he had nowhere else to go on a December night in 2016..

The woman told the court that she had offered to let him sleep on a sofa after he claimed he would have to sleep on a park bench or on the street.

She said she gave him pillows and blankets and left him to settle down on a couch in the living room at her flat, but later opened her bedroom door to find him standing outside with his underwear below his knees, performing a sex act on himself.

She said: "It was surreal. It just didn't seem right." He later tried to get into her bed and told her: "Well, I will just have to rape you then."

The woman managed to get him out of her home but not before he had "started gyrating in a sexual manner" against her.

She told the court: "I think he had just lost the plot regarding his behaviour to females."

Defence solicitor advocate Iain McSporran KC said that Young's position was that she was rubbing herself against him and saying 'come on. come on' in a sexual way before he left because of what she did.

The woman apologised for laughing and said: "I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. It's all totally wrong."

Young was convicted of sexually assaulting the woman with intent to rape at her home in Peebles in December 2016.

He was also found guilty of repeatedly raping a second woman who he rubbed excrement on and on one occasion in March 2020 smothered with a pillow over head, restricting her breathing.

Young was also convicted of carrying out a sex attack on a teenager after he took advantage of a chance encounter with her in 2021 during which he exposed and touched her breasts and abused her.

Young had denied a series of offences during his earlier trial but was found guilty of four offences - two of sexual assault and two of rape.

Mr McSporran said the crimes he was convicted of ranged from " serious to extremely serious".

The defence counsel said that Young had a good record of employment and a limited record of previous convictions.

Lady Haldane told Young that he would be placed on the sex offenders' register for an indefinite period following his sentencing.