Rapist must stay in prison

A rapist who carried out a brutal sex attack at a Paisley flat has failed in a bid to overturn his conviction.

Charles Graham preyed on a woman in October 2013, leaving her so injured she was in hospital for four days.

Graham was locked up for five years at the High Court in Edinburgh last November.

But the 46 year- old continued to protest his innocence and his lawyers lodged an appeal.

Graham was back in the dock for a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow to try and clear his name.

But Lord Carloway – sitting with Lord Turnbull and Drummond Young – said: “We are satisfied that there has been no miscarriage of justice. “We refuse the appeal.” A jury had heard how sick Graham ignored his victim’s desperate pleas and told her: “Wait until I finish.”

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, recalled: “I was scared and angry. I was trying to get up. I was telling him to stop.”

She said she crawled into a shower, bruised and bleeding, before being able to alert a friend to her ordeal.

Judge Lord Clark told Graham at sentencing: “Despite her lack of consent – and continuing protests – you forced yourself on her.

“There is no appropriate alternative to a custodial sentence.”

Graham, formerly of Maree Road, was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely.