Nine years’ jail for Dundee man who raped two prostitutes

Both women feared for their lives during violent sexual assaults

A rapist who preyed on women working as prostitutes was jailed for nine years yesterday after evidence from a now dead victim was used to help convict him.

One of Kenneth Williamson’s victims asked him if he was going to kill her after he raped her and another feared she was going to die.

Williamson, 33, abducted the two women after picking them up from streets in Dundee and Edinburgh and subjected them to terrifying ordeals.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh that his crimes were “predatory” offences committed against vulnerable victims.

Lord Turnbull said: “Each victim was subjected to a violent sexual assault involving abusive and humiliating conduct.”

Williamson first struck on January 5 last year after picking up a woman on Arbroath Road in Dundee and went on to carry out a similar attack on the second woman who had been working in the Leith area of Edinburgh on April 6 or 7.

He had earlier denied assaulting and raping the two women but was found guilty of both offences after a jury heard statements from one of the victims who has since died aged 36.

His first victim, aged 35, told the court that it was only her second night on the streets when Williamson pulled up in his van.

She said she agreed to perform a sex act on him for £40 and got in the vehicle. She told advocate depute Graeme Jessop she was driven out of the city and raped in Williamson’s van.

She said: “He was very intimidating. I was scared of him. I thought I was going to die. I thought he was going to kill me.”

After identifying her attacker in court the woman started to cry and then said: “He’s ruined my life.”

The second victim, who has died, gave details of the attack on her to police at the time, saying Williamson had picked her up in Leith and had driven to Musselburgh, East Lothian, near to the race course.

She said Williamson raped her twice in the back of his van and that she feared for her life.

Williamson, a married father of three formerly of Dundee, accepted that he had picked up both women to have sex but claimed he fell out with the women after refusing to pay them in full.

He also claimed no force was used. Defence counsel Ronnie Renucci said Williamson had been assessed as posing a medium risk and had no record for violent offending.