The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Rapist sent back to jail for six years after latest two offences
Man admits raping a teenage babysitter in his bathroom
A man who raped a teenage babysitter and indecently assaulted a woman the same age as him has been jailed.
Ian Cowan, 65, from Dunfermline, pled guilty at the High Court in Livingston to three serious sexual offences.
The widower admitted raping the babysitter in the bathroom of his then home in Linlithgow on October 2 1992.
He also admitted two charges of indecently assaulting the older woman over a six-year period nearly 25 years ago.
The father-of-two, who worked as a full-time refuse collection HGV driver for Stirling Council until his retirement, had previously served nine years in prison for attempting to rape two young girls in his care.
Judge Lord Burns sentenced him to six years and three months in prison for the latest crimes.
The Crown accepted not guilty pleas to a further seven historic charges, alleging rape, child sexual abuse, assaults and threatening behaviour with a shotgun.
Following Cowan’s fresh admissions, advocate depute Margaret Barrow revealed the older woman did not report any of the matters to police until 2007, when there was no prosecution because of a lack of evidence. She gave another statement to police in 2015.
She said she was still “angry and embarrassed” at what she suffered at Cowan’s hands and claimed he had “ruined her life”.
Ms Barrow said the babysitter did not disclose what Cowan had done until around two years later, when she told her partner. She reported the rape to police in December last year.
John Keenan, defending, said: “My understanding is that these were offences committed usually after nights out and usually when he was under the influence of alcohol, although that is no excuse.
“He has accepted responsibility and he feels ashamed.”
He said Cowan had stopped drinking completely since the death of his wife in 2015 and had committed no further offences.
Outside court, the woman who was the victim of Cowan’s sordid behaviour for more than five years, said: “We’re happy with the outcome. Now we’re off to start trying to piece our life back together and start living again without this hanging over us.”
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We’re off to start trying to piece our life back together and start living again without this hanging over us