Rapist guilty of ‘stealthing’ in landmark trial
AN aspiring actor has become the first man in Scotland to be convicted of rape for secretly not using a condom during sex.
The landmark case is the first prosecution of ‘stealthing’ – removing or not using a condom during sex without a partner’s knowledge.
Luke Ford, 33, was found guilty on Friday of 18 charges of abusing seven female partners, including raping five of them and the attempted rape of another.
A trial at Glasgow High Court heard Ford, a jobbing actor and model from Stirling, terrorised the women over a 12-year period, subjecting them to horrendous physical, mental and sexual abuse. He targeted successful professionals on dating apps, financially exploiting, controlling and abusing them.
In the stealthing case, he met the woman, a psychologist, in 2017 and after a few dates, they discussed having sex. She gave Ford protection and stipulated he use it and was devastated to find out he hadn’t.
She said: ‘I would not have had sex with him without a condom. I felt completely violated.’
When she confronted him, he angrily dismissed her and said it was ‘no big deal’. He texted: ‘If you are pregnant get rid of it.’
Prosecutor Advocate Depute Leanne Cross said Ford’s deception was rape and ‘showed his complete disregard to the issue of consent’.
Last night Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, said: ‘This is a landmark case. It gives a clear message that this kind of behaviour is not only unacceptable, it’s criminal.’
Although not specified as a crime in Scottish law, the 2009 Sexual Offences Act states consent to one sexual act does not mean agreement to another. Ms Brindley added: ‘Fourteen years on from the Act, this case finally demonstrates that if someone consents to sex, but not to sex without a condom, it’s rape.’
There has previously only been one successful UK prosecution of stealthing, in England in 2019.
Ford was also convicted of violent assault, including attempts at strangulation and smashing one partner’s head off a car window.
He also took intimate, often covert, videos and photographs, and threatened to show them to the women’s employers and families.
One woman he was convicted of raping said: ‘People say you have choices but there are no choices with someone like him.’