Six years’ jail for fiend who preyed on two women as they slept

Court reporter

A man who had preyed on two sleeping females at houses in Hamilton was this week jailed for six years.

Thirty-one-year-old Darren Mccutcheon had molested a teenager while she lay in bed before going on to rape another woman more than two years later at another address in the town.

Judge Lord Woolman told Mccutcheon at the High Court in Edinburgh:“on each occasion the victim was asleep and under the influence of alcohol. Your conduct has had a major impact on each of them.”

The judge pointed out that Mccutcheon’s first victim was a 17-year-old who was shocked to waken and find him groping her breasts.

The second woman had gone to a pub with Mccutcheon before returning to a flat where she felt sick and dizzy.

The next thing she remembered was waking up with Mccutcheon behind her and feeling that she was being violated.

A relative later came to collect her from the flat and found her sobbing and curled up in a ball.

The court heard that Mccutcheon maintained he was innocent of the crimes and claimed that the second woman had consented to intercourse.

He told the writer of a background report that he could not understand why two women should independently allege that he committed similar offences.

Lord Woolman told Mccutcheon:“in deciding on the appropriate sentence in this case, I must principally have regard to the nature of the offences. These were two very serious sexual offences.”

The judge said his behaviour had caused“great distress and harm”and added:“there must be a clear message to deter you and others from such conduct.”

Lord Woolman said imprisonment was the only appropriate punishment.

In addition to jailing the rapist for six years, he ordered he be under supervision for a further two-year period to protect the public.

Unemployed Mccutcheon, formerly of Springburn, Glasgow, was placed on the sex offenders’register indefinitely.

He had denied assaulting the teenager on December 8, 2012, by going into the bed where she was sleeping, pulling down her lower clothing and underwear and touching her breasts, but was convicted of the crime at an earlier trial.

He was found guilty of raping the second victim in April 2015 at a different address.

Both women had been incapable of giving or withholding consent.

Defence counsel John Scullion QC said:“a significant custodial sentence is inevitable in this case standing the offences of which he was convicted.

“He has confirmed to me he will cooperate with whatever programmes are required of him as a result of his conviction.”

Mr Scullion said father-of-one Mccutcheon had no record of sexual offending.