Jury convicts man after nine years of brutal sex attacks

Published on Saturday 14 August 2010 01:53

A MAN was yesterday found guilty of committing a series of violent sex attacks in Inverness over a nine-year period.

Hector MacLennan, 29, attacked three teenage girls at several houses in the city.

The High Court in Aberdeen heard that unemployed MacLennan's crimes were not reported to the police because his victims feared he would come after them.

But he was eventually caught when one of his victim's mothers filed a complaint with officers last year.

During his trial, the court heard that he had a fascination with blood and had used scissors during the attacks to draw blood from his victims.

Yesterday a jury of eight women and seven men found him guilty of seven violent crimes.

They took just over three hours to find him guilty of two charges of rape, four assaults and a sex attack by a majority verdict.

Lord Woolman ordered a risk assessment report because of the violent nature of the crimes and the pattern of MacLennan's behaviour.

MacLennan began sexually attacking women in the Highland city in 2000 when he raped a teenage girl while she was sleeping.

He then committed a violent assault on his victim and locked her in the house.

Five years later he struck again when he strangled a pregnant woman with his belt and threatened to kill her.

He went on to assault the same woman in a vicious attack which has left his victim with a permanent facial disfigurement.

He broke her nose by striking her with a chair, pulling her arms behind her back and dropping her on a concrete floor on her knees.

He then hacked her with a pair of scissors and raped her.

Two years later he assaulted another woman by smashing a bottle then holding it to her throat.

The court heard that MacLennan then subjected his victim to a prolonged rape ordeal.

The three victims, now women, all gave evidence during a four-week trial in Aberdeen.

And the jury heard that one of the victims had been so distressed reliving the nightmare to police that she had been signed off work for a number of weeks.

The jury heard evidence of MacLennan's interest in blood.

Advocate Depute Jennifer Bain said in her closing speech: "Each woman was subjected to alcohol-fuelled aggression resulting in violence for trivial reasons.

"In many ways he carried out the brutalisation in the same way, for example, the use of knives and a fascination with blood … or using scissors."

When police arrested Mac-Lennan at his home, they also discovered 32 indecent images of children on his laptop computer.

Yesterday, Lord Woolman placed MacLennan on the sex offenders register.

He thanked members of the jury for their careful deliberations.

He added: "I appreciate you have had no easy task and some of the evidence you heard has been very distressing."

He deferred sentence until 10 November at the High Court in Edinburgh so that reports could be compiled.