Rapist tried to murder youngster

Women and children suffered‘ unspeakable evil’

A brutal bully tried to get a woman to send him topless pictures – as a child he attempted to murder lay in a critical condition in hospital.

William McArthur inflicted numerous injuries on the fouryear-old victim of the murder bid and sexually abused her during a catalogue of crimes against women and children.

McArthur (35) of Birkenshaw Way, Armadale, raped a woman and a teenager and sexually assaulted another woman as well as committing acts of violence against three children.

His youngest victim, the four- year- old girl, suffered significant head and stomach injuries doctors suspected were non-accidental, inflicted trauma.

The child also sustained an injury one doctor had never seen in their career. A

judge told McArthur that the crimes he committed against the youngster were ones of “unspeakable evil”.

Lord Uist told him: “It is clear that you are a serious danger to women and children.”

He said the former West Lothian College student’s criminal responsibility was made worse by his record of committing domestic assaults, which earned him a 27-month prison sentence in 2015.

The Crown made a motion to the court seeking that a full risk assessment order should be made on McArthur which can result in an Order for Lifelong Restriction being made.

The judge said he would seek a background report and psychological assessment on McArthur before addressing the Crown motion.

He told McArthur that whatever form his ultimate sentence took “you can expect to spend many years in prison”.

Lord Uist told jurors that they had to deal with a “most distasteful and distressing case”, adding: “This is not a case anyone would have volunteered to become involved in.”

McArthur had denied a series of charges during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was convicted of nine crimes.

He was found guilty of assaulting and raping a 29-year-old woman in June and July 2014 at a village near Dumfries.

He was also convicted of attacking a six-year-old girl on an occasion between March 1 and July 30 in 2014 at a caravan in the village by threatening her with violence and brandishing a knife at her.

McArthur was also found guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl at a house in Grangemouth, after she had been drinking and was sick in November last year.

He attacked the teenager the following month, grabbed hold of and pulled her hair.

In the murder bid on the four-year-old girl he assaulted her on various occasions between October last year and January this year by grabbing her, striking her with an unknown object and inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and body to her severe injury and the danger of her life.

He also sexually assaulted the child during the same period.

McArthur was also convicted of sexually assaulting a 40-year-old woman at an address in Grangemouth who was asleep when he began the attack in December last year.

McArthur admitted two charges of stalking women he met through the Badoo dating website before his trial began.

One 28-year-old was bombarded with messages from him and repeatedly asked him to leave her alone.

He asked the woman, who found his behaviour creepy and intimidating, for pictures of her daughter.

He also bombarded a 21-year-old mother with messages and became abusive and aggressive towards her.

During the trial prosecutor Jo McDonald told the jury that McArthur was aware that the four-year-old was on life support and was going to be transferred from Forth Valley Royal Hospital at Larbert, in Stirlingshire, to the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh, but was texting a female acquaintance asking her to send him indecent pictures.

McArthur was put on the Sex Offenders’ Register and remanded in custody.