Paedophile freed to rape girl, 12, is locked up at last
Serial sex predator jailed for six years
A CONVICTED sex offender who raped a 12-year-old girl after he was freed on bail while awaiting sentence for crimes against underage teenagers was jailed for six years yesterday.
Alexander Mitchell made contact with his victim through social media before having sex with her at a relative’s home.
The Daily Mail told how Mitchell, 23, had been granted bail after a sheriff court appearance – with a condition that he was not to be in the company of females under 16 – when he committed the rape. At the time he had been awaiting sentence for having sex with two underage girls.
Jailing Mitchell at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Judge Lord Boyd told him: ‘You asked a 12-year-old girl to climb in your bedroom window and took advantage of her and raped her. At the time you were on bail for having sex with two 13-year-olds. You have an obvious interest in under-age girls.’
Lord Boyd said that he would have jailed Mitchell for nine years, but for his guilty plea.
He also put the labourer, who is assessed as posing a high risk to young girls, on the sex offenders’ register and ruled that he must be monitored in the community for two years after his release from jail.
A previous hearing was told how Mitchell, of Dornoch, Sutherland, had encouraged his young victim to climb into the house through a window.
This was despite the fact he had been granted bail after a sheriff court appearance and banned from being in the company of girls under 16.
Police were alerted that a young girl had climbed through a window and when Mitchell answered the door to officers he appeared nervous.
He insisted that there was no one else in the house but officers spotted the girl lying in a bedroom. At the time she said they had just been talking and smoking cigarettes.
In March last year, she finally revealed what had happened, saying she had not initially told the truth because ‘she was scared of getting into trouble’, the court heard.
Mitchell admitted raping the girl in June 2014 at a house near Invergordon, Ross-shire.
The labourer has a number of previous convictions for sexual offences. His defence counsel Lorraine Glancy said: ‘Since the incident he has had no further contact with his victim.
‘He is now a 23-year-old man, he knows what he did was wrong.’
She said that at the time of the rape he had taken to drugs and alcohol after a friend’s death.
Mitchell showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence.
The court heard that his record included breaching notification requirements for convicted sex offenders. In 2014 he was sentenced to 12 months in a young offenders’ institution after having sex with two underage girls despite having a sexually transmitted disease.
At that time, Sheriff David Sutherland told him: ‘Young girls have to be protected. These are serious matters.’
Detective Sergeant Lynne Baptie, of Police Scotland’s Public Protection Unit, said: ‘Alexander Mitchell targeted his vulnerable young victim and exploited her in the most horrific way. It is down to the victim’s courage in reporting the incident that he was convicted and prevented from potentially causing harm to other young people.’
‘Exploited in the most horrific way’