The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Sex offender who fled to Spain jailed for life
One victim was left haunted by nightmares
A high-risk sex attacker who fled to Spain after leaving a little girl haunted by nightmares has been jailed for life.
David MacBride, 44, was brought back to Scotland from Spain this year to face justice after failing to turn up for a court hearing in 2016 and fleeing abroad.
MacBride, formerly of Westwood Avenue, Kirkcaldy, carried out sex assaults on women and children between 2007 and 2014 at addresses in Cardenden, Glenrothes, Burntisland, Kirkcaldy, Methil and Dunfermline.
One woman, who met him when she was a teenager, said she was the victim of sex attacks “more than once”
The 29-year old said she had been in bed and tried to kid on she was sleeping when MacBride arrived at her flat but he got on top of her.
She told jurors: “He grabbed my arms. He pinned them against the bed.
“I tried to struggle to get my arms free. He was too strong.”
MacBride was convicted earlier this year of rape and sexual assault charges.
He had pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching bail by failing to attend a procedural hearing at the High Court because he had gone to Spain.
Judge Lord Uist deferred sentence to obtain reports about MacBride’s character.
Yesterday, at a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Uist imposed an order for lifelong restriction on MacBride.
“He grabbed my arms. He pinned them against the bed.
VICTIM
Lord Uist told him he would have to serve a minimum of 10 years before he is able to apply for parole.
However, the parole board are legally obliged only to release him once enough evidence is available to show he no longer poses a threat to women.
At proceedings earlier this year, the 29-year-old woman told the jury of how she was just 19 when MacBride first attacked her.
She said she was “quite panicked” and told MacBride to get off but he ignored her pleas to stop.
A second woman, now aged 44, said MacBride turned up unexpectedly at a flat she had moved into in Glenrothes in 2010 as her partner was being treated in hospital.
The woman said she was surprised to see him but agreed to let him stay the night while she slept on a couch.
She said she woke up and found MacBride trying to carry out an oral sexual assault on her.
She said she pretended to be asleep because she “was not sure what he was going to do next”.
“I just froze,” she added.
But she said her daughter came in and caught MacBride in the act and threatened to phone the police prompting him to leave.
A girl revealed that MacBride had first abused her when she was five.
She told the court she was left feeling scared and added: “He said not to tell anyone or my mum would go to jail.”
During recorded interviews with the child, now aged 13, she revealed she was having nightmares about MacBride “coming to get us”.
During a police interview over the allegations made against him father-of-nine MacBride told officers: “This is all b ******* .”
He claimed one of the women was out to get him and was seeking revenge against him.