Rapist who targeted sleeping women is jailed for eight years

A repeat rapist was jailed for eight years yesterday after carrying out sex attacks on sleeping women during a catalogue of offending.

Daniel Malone, 32, preyed on three victims at addresses in Aberdeen and Dysart, in Fife.

Malone, a prisoner, had earlier denied a series of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was convicted of rapes and sexual assaults on the women.

He returned to the same court today where judge Alison Stirling ruled that he should serve a further three-year period when he will be supervised and under licence following the custodial sentence.

The court heard that Malone left one victim in a “terrible” state after an altercation at a flat in Aberdeen that resulted in her landing on the ground outside the front door.

A friend of the woman, who was in contact with her on the Facetime app, said Malone had told the victim to “get out of his f***ing face”.

She said: “She landed on the floor. She had no shoes on, no money.”

She said that after a few minutes Malone threw out a pair of shoes and a £10 note.

The witness said the woman later told her that Malone had raped her in a bedroom in the flat.

She said: “She was shaking, crying, beside herself. She didn’t know what to do.”

She added: “I told her to immediately phone the police.”

Malone, who had denied a series of charges during his trial, was convicted of two offences of rape against the victim, which he committed in 2019 and 2020.

He twice raped the woman at an address in Aberdeen while she was sleeping and, on a third occasion, raped her during a sex attack.

During that assault, he pulled off a towel she was wearing and pushed her onto a bed.

He had earlier carried out rapes on another sleeping woman, on two occasions, between January 2008 and May 2009, at addresses in Aberdeen and Dysart, Fife.

His third victim was subjected to rape and two sexual assaults at a house in Aberdeen, between June and September 2020.

Judge Stirling told jurors at the end of the earlier trial that it was “a difficult and anxious case”.

Malone’s sentence was backdated to September 2020 and he was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.