Greyfriars rapist jailed af ter DNA match proved his guilt six years on
A RAPIST who escaped justice for seven years following a sex attack was yesterday jailed after being caught through his DNA.
Cy Sullivan, 26, raped the 46-yearold victim in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh, in November 2009.
DNA was recovered, but at the time there was no match in the national database.
Commercial diver Sullivan’s sordid past was only uncovered when he was charged with assaulting a bouncer in October 2015 and a routine DNA swab was taken. His DNA matched that of the Greyfriars Churchyard rapist.
Sullivan, of Shetland, claimed that he and the woman had consensual sex, but a jury convicted him of raping her while she was so intoxicated she could not have given consent. Jailing him for five years at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lady Rae told Sullivan: ‘You raped a lady almost twice your age. You took advantage of her intoxicated state.
‘She has been left seriously traumatised by what you did and with having to relive what she remembered, and the shame and embarliving rassment she felt when she was discovered by police in the state of undress that you left her in. She was a stranger to you.’
An earlier trial heard how the victim was found by police wandering half naked in the cemetery in a confused and drunken state. She described what happened to her as ‘a nightmare’. In evidence, she said she travelled from her home in the Highlands to attend a conference in Edinburgh and decided to visit the grave of Greyfriars Bobby. The woman said she had at least eight glasses of wine.
A police officer who saw her hours later, at 5am, described her as ‘intoxicated’.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was asked by prosecutor Ian Wallace: ‘Do you remember leaving Greyfriars pub?’ She sobbed: ‘No. I remember coming round in the graveyard and there was a police lady. I was frozen and I was disorientated. I tried for some time to find my way out. It was like something happened and I had just come round. It was awful. I just felt awful, embarrassed. I had no clothing on my bottom half.’
Asked if she had any recollection of anyone having sex with her, the victim replied: ‘No.’ Mr Wallace then said: ‘Did you want to have sex with anyone that night?’ The victim said: ‘Definitely not.’
Sullivan told the court he had bought the woman a drink and then afterwards had sex with her. He said she appeared fine to him and not drunk.
He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in May this year and yesterday was taken into court in a wheelchair and then walked the few feet into the dock using crutches.
His defence counsel David Nicolson said: ‘His family maintain their support of him, particularly his partner of three years. He has a good work record and has only one previous conviction.’
Lady Rae placed Sullivan on the sex offenders’ register.
‘A living nightmare for the victim’