You stole 11-year-old’s childhood, judge tells depraved rapist

Former takeaway delivery driver caged for eight years

A former takeaway delivery driver who raped an 11-year-old schoolgirl was jailed for eight years yesterday after a judge told him he had stolen the victim’s childhood.

Paul Colquhoun, from Paisley, also carried out a string of sex crimes involving two other teenagers and the rape of two sleeping women over a 12-year period.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh that a jury had convicted him of “a series of serious sexual offences”.

John Morris QC said that Colquhoun, 49, had obtained the trust of victims before callously abusing them.

The judge said that he regarded the rape of the 11-year-old at a house in Clydebank as being the most serious offence and added that in committing the crime Colquhoun was “effectively stealing her childhood”.

He ordered that Colquhoun, of Wellmeadow Street, should be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely.

Colquhoun gave the girl alcohol and, while she was intoxicated, removed her clothing and pushed her down before raping her on one occasion between December 1999 and December the following year.

He also molested the girl and tried to rape her at addresses in Clydebank and Lochwinnoch.

The court heard that he would take the youngster with him in a car when he was out on delivery rounds.

He was also found guilty of sexually abusing two other teenagers and showing them pornographic images.

Colquhoun, a security guard who had denied a string of charges at his earlier trial, was further found guilty of raping women at addresses in Clydebank and Glasgow.

The rapes were committed between 1994 and 2006.

Defence counsel Edward Targowski QC said there had been no further allegations of sexual misconduct by Colquhoun since 2006.

He said: “What should be taken into account is that he has not been offending or a risk to anyone since 2006.”