Beast trawled web for rape victims
A SERIAL rapist who groomed dozens of young girls online before sexually abusing them has been jailed for 12 years.
Predator Gavin Scoular, 24, was convicted of 27 offences involving girls as young as 12. He raped four victims a total of seven times.
Scoular originally faced 132 charges involving more than 90 girls, but stood trial on 34 counts after a judge declared a police search unlawful.
He began his frenzy of sex crime at 15 and continued until he was 18, even targeting girls while on bail.
A senior police officer said his offending was “on a scale among the worst I have ever come across in such a short space of time”.
Scoular prowled Facebook, Snapchat and Skype for victims. He offered affection to girls who were often vulnerable, but would then urge them to send him pictures of themselves naked. He didn’t care if they were underage.
He would use the naked images to force girls to do what he wanted, often threatening to put the photos online.
Scoular, formerly of Niddrie House Drive, Edinburgh, was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2014 for sending sexual texts to young children BY DAVE FINLAY after evidence was found in his phones.
Police later looked at his computer equipment and found a horrifying catalogue of further crimes. The case that led to yesterday’s sentence was launched and Scoular was rearrested after being freed on licence.
He was found guilty last year of 27 offences including seven rapes, sexual assault, underage sex and grooming, committed against seven victims aged 12 to 17 in the Edinburgh area between 2010 and 2013.
Scoular was jailed at the High Court in Edinburgh. Lord Summers spared him an 18-year term because of factors including his age, and he avoided a lifelong sentence after being classed as a “medium risk” to the public.
He was put on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and will be supervised for five years after release.
Iain Paterson, defending, said: “He knows he has got to change. He wants to try to move on with his life.”
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Maclean was shocked by the scale of Scoular’s offending. He called him “an extremely dangerous individual” and said he was rearrested “as soon as sufficient evidence was gathered”.