Serial rapist and former aide to two PMS is locked up
A FORMER aide to two prime ministers has been jailed after being convicted of rape for the second time within a month.
Mark Adams, 56, was found guilty yesterday of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old student in Regent Road, Edinburgh, in the early hours of August 10 2017.
The High Court in the city heard how Adams abused the teenager on the floor of his camper van. His victim had told a jury how the former civil servant had preyed on her as she returned home from a night out at the Edinburgh Fringe.
She told the court of how she had fallen asleep only to wake up and find the divorced father of four having sex with her.
Adams, of Fareham, Hampshire, claimed he had consensual sex with the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
But after spending two hours in deliberations, jurors returned a guilty verdict to one charge of rape.
After hearing how Adams had been convicted on the same charge at Woolwich Crown Court in January 2019, judge Lord Armstrong deferred sentence to obtain reports on his character. He also remanded the businessman in custody.
Lord Armstrong was also told Adams had been convicted of sexual assault in a Welsh court last year.
The judge told Adams: “You must know by now that rape is a grave crime against which all women should be protected.
“It is inevitable that a sentence of imprisonment will follow but before I can pass sentence on you I must be fully informed about your circumstances. I will call for a criminal justice social work report.”
The verdict came on the fourth day of proceedings against Adams who served as private secretary to both John Major and Tony Blair during the 1990s. He was made an OBE in 1997 and is a graduate of Cambridge University.
After leaving the Civil Service, Adams set up a public affairs agency called Foresight Consulting in 2001. His company acted for clients including the Police Federation.
In January 2019, Adams was convicted of raping a 24-year-old woman on a sofa bed at his former London home the morning after the 2015 general election. The woman had no space to sleep and was invited to watch TV with Adams on a sofa bed. Adams, who had been drinking whisky, raped her. He was also convicted at Swansea Crown Court in October 2018 of sexually assaulting a barmaid in Tenby,
Wales. Adams will be sentence on March 26 2019.