He was my dashing online date, an off icer and a gentleman...but he brutally raped me
Victim warns of dangers of web dating after rogue lieutenant colonel is convicted of sex attacks
FOR the 33-year-old mother of three, long-separated from her partner and looking for a touch of romance to brighten her life, turning to a dating website seemed the obvious answer.
Attracted to one profile in particular – a dashing forty-something male who claimed to be looking for a woman to ‘share his life with’ and with whom to start a family – she tentatively reached out, hoping for dinner and a few hours of engaging conversation. But unknown to her, Phil Donegan was already in a relationship and was an online predator who would later boast that he was a serial womaniser who ‘liked to trick women into bed’.
Within an hour of meeting him and enjoying a couple of glasses of wine at his home before their dinner date, the 48-year-old – who was one of the highest ranking Territorial Army officers in the UK – had subjected her to a terrifying sexual attack, she said.
It would lead to him being charged with rape but, after a High Court trial in June 2016, he walked free after the jury delivered the controversial not proven verdict.
Last week, however, justice finally caught up with the former lieutenant colonel when he was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow of raping two other women he had also met on dating sites.
Shockingly, one of the attacks occurred only four months after he was cleared of raping the mother of three.
Today, in an emotional interview with The Scottish Mail on Sunday, she talks for the first time publicly about her devastation and betrayal by the Scottish justice system, which not only left her feeling humiliated and a broken woman but allowed Donegan to go free to commit more rapes.
She also warns of the dangers of sexual predators using dating websites to target potential victims and believes more women may have been attacked by Donegan – who worked as a tax lecturer at Strathclyde University – but they have not come forward.
She said: ‘When I walked away from court that day, my soul was screaming. I felt humiliated and dirty.
‘It had taken a lot for me to discuss the most intimate of details in front of strangers. For the jury to take his side against mine, left me feeling broken and betrayed. To hear he has gone on to do it again does not surprise me. He’s arrogant and thinks it’s all a game.
‘I feel so sad and upset for the two women involved. They wouldn’t be in this position if he had been jailed for his attack on me.’
During her case, the court heard that after chatting on dating site Zoosk, Donegan forced himself on her in his home in Glasgow’s Knightswood area when the pair finally met face to face on September 27, 2014. He ripped her bra and top, pushed her face down on his bathroom floor and raped her – while watching himself in the mirrors.
He was acquitted despite his admission in court to jurors that he was, in fact, a serial womaniser who regularly cheated on his partner and cynically enjoyed using different ‘techniques’ to convince women to sleep with him.
Donegan, who joined the Territorial Army in 1991 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2009, denied raping the woman, claiming it was consensual sex. He bragged: ‘I would very much regard myself as the “player” type – I use techniques to try and obtain sex with women.
‘My sexual conduct does include an element of deception. My behaviour was pretty shabby, but the sex was consensual.’
Donegan – who until 2012 was in charge of nearly 600 regular and reservist soldiers as Commanding Officer of 32 Signal Regiment (Volunteers), part of a Royal Signals TA Regiment – admitted he did rip her bra off, pull her hair and tell her, ‘I’m going to f*** you, bitch’, but said it was part of ‘kinky sex’, which turned him on.
The court heard Donegan told the woman he would take her out for a drink but took her back to his house instead and had not told her he wanted to have sex with her.
Brazenly, he explained to the jury: ‘That’s the part as a player – to not tell them your true intentions. I was obviously cheating on my partner as well. My original intention was to go to
‘My soul was screaming. I felt humiliated and dirty’
a pub for a drink but I changed my mind. Ripping her bra off was a kind of kinky sex ploy that I thought would lead to consensual intercourse.
‘I really thought I’d gone too far and expected her to swing for me. It was part of my player activities – I was chancing my arm, I suppose.’
The shocked woman recalls events very differently, however, saying the speed with which he turned from being Mr Nice Guy to Mr Nasty was astonishing.
She said: ‘I definitely hadn’t gone there planning to have sex. There was absolutely no way it was consensual and I was disgusted when I heard that in court. I had a heavy period at the time and wasn’t looking for anything like that.
‘I’d thought we’d have a nice dinner and chat like normal, intelligent people. It’s very difficult to find romance when you have three children. If you are chatting with someone, you get to know what they are like, about their interests and what they are looking for in a relationship.
‘His profile was so nice and absolutely perfect. He said he was looking for a woman to share his life and to have a family. He was pretending so well. But in real life he was a monster. An absolute animal.
‘One minute we were talking about previous relationships when he suddenly launched himself at me, ripping my clothes. I was so shocked and thought, “I’ve got to get out of here”. He’d locked the door so I went upstairs, where the bathroom was, to sort myself out before leaving and he came after me.
‘His eyes were so wild and aggressive. I couldn’t fight him, there was something terrifying and unpredictable about him suddenly. I didn’t know what he would do next, if he had a knife or would kill me. I kept thinking about my three children and who would look after them if something happened to me.’
She said that after the assault, Donegan disappeared into his bedroom and fell asleep.
She recalled: ‘I was very scared and I tried to look for the key to the door. He woke up just as I was getting out the front door and I remember running, hearing him calling after me.’
Lost in the darkness of an unfamiliar city, she desperately called a friend for help. But as she waited to be picked up, Donegan repeatedly sent her pleading text messages.
She said: ‘He was saying things like “I’m really sorry”, “I’m not going to do that again”. I felt sick and scared and just wanted to get home.’
She called police to report the attack, adding: ‘Before they arrived, I kept thinking how they were going to look at me. I felt so dirty and embarrassed. I was desperate to have a shower, but knew I couldn’t until they had examined me.’
She later heard he had been charged with raping her but it would be another 21 months before the case went to trial at the High Court in Paisley. During that period, however, as she tried to move on with her life, cocky Donegan sent her a Facebook friend request, which she showed to police.
‘He wasn’t allowed to approach me in any way, yet he clearly felt confident enough to do that,’ she said. ‘It made me feel ill.’
As the trial date approached, she became anxious about facing him again and, in the end, gave evidence over three days from behind a screen in the courtroom.
To this day, given the weight of evidence against Donegan, she is still bewildered by the fact it took the jury just an hour to find the rape charge against him not proven. She said: ‘I went through a really hard time afterwards. I used to be a confident person and had a strong personality. I’m not that person anymore. I’m not so brave. I don’t trust people so much.’ Any suggestion that Donegan might learn from his mistakes was crushed in the weeks afterwards when she received another audacious Facebook friend request from him – this time with a profile photograph of himself lying on the ground with several women fawning over him. She said: ‘I felt like he was laughing at me. It was as if he was saying to me, “Look at me, still surrounded by beautiful women”.’ Last week, it emerged Donegan had gone on, weeks later, in October 2016, to rape a 33-year-old woman in her Paisley home. He had also mounted a stalking campaign against her after the rape, by bombarding her with unwanted texts and phone calls and threatening to send an indecent photograph
‘He was a monster. An absolute animal’
of her to her boss. At his home on July 28, he also raped another 30year-old woman.
Prosecutor Sheena Fraser said: ‘Mr Donegan is a man who does not listen when he is told, “No”.
The former officer will be sentenced next month.
Last night, the mother of three said: ‘I would like to say to my jury now, “How do you feel that you allowed a rapist to go free?”.
‘I didn’t get proper justice. I feel very let down by the justice system but these women have been let down, too.’
Now in a happy, long-term relationship, she urges caution to others about the potential dangers of dating sites, given that Donegan targeted all three women online.
Sadly, she believes there are more women who have also been preyed upon or attacked by him.
She said: ‘I would encourage them to come forward and not be scared, although I do so with mixed feelings. He should be held accountable for his actions.’
She added: ‘I really hope he gets a long sentence so other women are safe from him – online and offline.
‘It brings me some comfort that he’s finally been stopped. On the day I left court, unable to believe that everything I had been through was for nothing, I remember thinking that if I was not going to get justice here, then God would make sure he got what he deserves.
‘I can’t believe my prayers have finally been answered.’