Lifelong order made on ‘vile’ rapist

A HIGH-RISK predatory sex offender who repeatedly raped a young woman in a “prolonged, vile and depraved attack” has been given a lifelong restriction order.

Daniel Welsh, 22, pounced on the 25-year-old victim in Aberdeen in February and raped her at two separate remote locations.

The terrifying ordeal, which lasted for nearly two hours, left the woman seriously traumatised and suffering “incalculable” psychological damage.

Welsh was a registered sex offender, on bail and subject to a full Sexual Offences Prevention Order when he carried out the attack.

Judge Lady Rae imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) on Welsh, meaning that once he is deemed safe to be released he will be subject to continuing risk assessments and will likely remain under close supervision for the rest of his life.

Sitting at the High Court in Edinburgh, she ordered him to spend a minimum of four and a half years behind bars.

Welsh – who claimed not to remember committing the crime – pleaded guilty to rape at a court hearing in June.

Passing sentence, Lady Rae told him he was guilty of “a most serious and monstrous attack” on a woman who was unknown to him.

She said: “The attack lasted almost two hours during which you forced her to accompany you, threatened to shoot her if she did not comply with your instructions and subjected her to a horrific, degrading and prolonged sexual attack.

“You repeatedly raped her at two separate remote locations. One cannot even imagine the terror that this young woman must have suffered during that period.”