Angus sex offender raped woman in Forfar while out on bail.

COURT: Man convicted of a string of offences dating back to 1996 following 10-day trial in Edinburgh

He was also found guilty of a further eight assault charges committed against four other women and a boy who was aged between eight and 11 when he was attacked by Davidson

A violent sex offender from Angus who was freed after allegedly breaching bail as he faced a string of abuse charges raped a young mother a week following his release.

The woman said she was struggling for funds for her daughter’s imminent birthday and offered Rick Davidson sex for money.

But she told the High Court in Edinburgh that Davidson, 48, told her he did not pay for sex before subjecting her to a rape ordeal.

The 27-year-old woman said: “Things got quite heated very quickly. He pushed me on the bed and he raped me.”

She said Davidson applied force to her back and she could not move. She told the court: “When he pushed me down, he slammed my head off the floor.”

Advocate depute Derick Nelson asked the woman how long the rape lasted and she replied: “I don’t know. I am sorry I don’t know. It felt like forever.”

The woman said she remembered feeling helpless and said: “I was asking him to get off.”

She fled to the bathroom at Davidson’s home in Lordburn Place, Forfar, after the attack on October 3 last year. “I was just trying to find a safe place. I was screaming and I was panicking,” she said.

During a 10-day trial Davidson had denied raping the woman and a catalogue of other offences committed over a 22-year period up to last year.

He was found guilty of assaulting and raping the woman, grabbing her, pushing her on to a bed and holding her down.

He had been freed twice at Forfar Sheriff Court on bail before the sex attack.

He was also found guilty of a further eight assault charges committed against four other women and a boy who was aged between eight and 11 when he was attacked by Davidson.

Davidson was acquitted of trying to murder two of the women, one of whom was pregnant at the time, by attempting to push and throw them out of third and fourth floor windows at flats in Forfar.

Davidson’s violence to women began between 1995 and 1996 when he attacked a victim at a flat in Dalmeney Street, in the Leith area of Edinburgh, and struck her on the chest with a lit cigarette as she wore a low cut top.

The boy victim was assaulted by Davidson between 2000 and 2002 at different places in Forfar where he was thrown against railings and to the floor and in a bath of cold water.

A judge told Davidson that he would order a background report on him with a risk assessment before sentencing him next month.

Lord Arthurson said that he was concerned by the risk of violent and sexual offending he posed, particularly to women. He remanded Davidson in custody and placed him on the sex offenders register.

Rick Davidson, who was found guilty of a series of offences against five women and a boy, had been out on bail at the time of his most recent crime, the rape of a 27-year-old woman.