SICKENING BETRAYAL OF RAPE VICTIM, 15
‘Depraved’ monster jailed for only FOUR years as police praise courage of the girl he attacked
A RAPIST who snatched a schoolgirl off the street and subjected her to a 32-hour attack could be out of jail in four years. Mark armstrong kidnapped his 15- year - old vi ctim as she returned f rom netball practice, threatening her with a flick knife.
Her horrific ordeal lasted a day and a half, during which she said she was raped eight times.
Last night, a victims’ group attacked the sentence handed down to the dangerous paedophile, who will be monitored for life but may serve only four years in prison.
armstrong was given an Order for Lifelong Restriction – a jail term from which he can only ever be freed with the permission of P arole Board
bosses. But the punishment part of his sentence is only four years, after which he will be eligible for parole.
It means, despite his brutal crime, that with time served already he could be back on the streets in just over three years.
A court heard that in March l ast year Armstrong put his hands around the girl’s throat and asked her if she was a virgin, before a prolonged sex attack in the grounds of a derelict cottage, during which she begged him to stop. He then took her to his house in Dunfermline, Fife, where she was assaulted again.
At one point he led her to believe he was letting her go, only to take the 15-year- old to his home a second time, where he attacked her again.
A High Court judge yesterday told the 26-year- old rapist his actions were ‘cruel, depraved and inhumane’. But Lady Wise cut a potential sentence of 15 years if he had not pleaded guilty or been given an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR), to four years.
Jan Macleod, manager of the Women’s Support Project charity which works to raise awareness of violence against women in Scotland, said: ‘I am worried this might send the wrong message to people about the seriousness with which the sentence reflects the impact on the victim’s life.
‘This was not a brief attack – there is an element of torture in pretending to release someone and attacking them again.
‘If you have been through an experience like that, it doesn’t always ruin your life for ever but it changes it, and the difference between knowing that person is behind bars and that they are walking around on the streets is immense.’
Armstrong will be monitored until his death under the OLR after being charged with abducting, raping and assaulting the defenceless girl, who he throttled and left with facial injuries which made her unrecognisable.
But a prison term of 15 years he could have received under a fixed sentence for these charges and a string of violent robberies against women was whittled down to almost a quarter of that.
At the High Court in Glasgow, Lady Wise took four years off because Armstrong pleaded guilty early. She said another three were being deducted because she was not imposing a ‘determinate sentence’, but a lifelong restriction instead.
She said this would have left the rapist facing only eight years in prison, making him eligible for parole after serving just half of that. So, following that guidance, she set the punishment part of his sentence at four years.
The judge said ‘there is absolutely no assumption or expectation’ that he will be released after this amount of time. Any offences committed while on parole would see Armstrong returned to jail.
But Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said: ‘Mark Armstrong
‘Might send the wrong message’
is a depraved individual who put his victim through a terrifying ordeal and four years does not seem long enough.
‘Once again, it is the victims of crime who are let down by the SNP’s soft-touch approach to justice.’
It yesterday emerged that Armstrong was cleared at the High Court in Dunfermline of raping a
41-year-old woman more than a decade ago when he was 16.
The schoolgirl he targeted in March was travelling home from netball training and had got off a bus i n Dunfermline when Armstrong abducted her.
As her frantic mother reported her missing to the police, she was being brutally attacked at the cottage i n Kingseat Road, Dunfermline.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was then taken to Armstrong’s home, where she suffered repeated sexual abuse and rape.
Advocate depute Jane Farquharson told Edinburgh High Court last year: ‘The accused only spoke to tell her what to do, to shut up or stop shivering.’ The girl told police l ater: ‘ I just wanted to call my mum.’ The 15year-old estimated she had been raped eight times, saying later it happened ‘over and over again’.
Police f ound t he victim’s T- shirt, underwear and broken glasses at the cottage, but hours passed before she was released at Lochore Meadows Country Park near Lochgelly, Fife.
She was reunited with her mother, into whose arms she fell, described by police as ‘shaking, crying and occasionally howling’. The victim suffered facial injuries which left her unrecognisable from a photo given to police when she went missing.
Yesterday defence counsel Michael Anderson told the court his client felt he should be jailed for a long time. He added: ‘He says he deserves a long sentence. For what it is worth, and I recognise it may not be worth a lot, he articulates his regret at what has happened.’
Armstrong has been placed on the sex offenders’ register and Lady Wise told him: ‘Your behaviour was so cruel, depraved and inhumane that even without any other offences or previous criminal convictions, it would merit a very significant punishment.
‘The bravery and resilience shown by your victim during and after her ordeal was quite remarkable, but the long-term impact on her is as yet unknown.’
On the sex offender’s four years before being eligible for parole, she added: ‘You will be released only when it is considered no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you continue to be confined in prison.’
Detective Chief I nspector Michelle Johnson said: ‘It is due to the courage and bravery of Armstrong’s victim that he has been brought to justice.
‘It is not an overstatement to say she cracked the case for officers, and Police Scotland pays tribute to her maturity and resolve. We hope this sentence will allow Armstrong’s victims, and their families, to rebuild their lives.’
The Scottish Daily Mail has previously revealed that record numbers of rapists are being freed early from prison after serving only half their sentence, with 19 granted parole in 2013-14.
The SNP has axed automatic early release of the most serious offenders, but some people convicted of rape have been let off with community service.
On the Armstrong case, a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The independence of Scotland’s judiciary is a fundamental part of the Scottish legal system and ministers cannot intervene or comment in individual cases.
‘Reforms were introduced by the Scottish Government in 2012 to strengthen the powers of our courts when setting the minimum that must be served in custody as part of a life sentence.’
‘Cruel, depraved and inhumane’