Man who treated rape case as 'joke' fights to clear name

Published on Tuesday 26 January 2010 21:50

A CONVICTED rapist who boasted about his sex life while being questioned by detectives yesterday continued his eight-year fight to clear his name.

Former golf professional Graham Gordon, 49, even pinched a policewoman's bottom during the 2002 investigation and asked her what she did with her handcuffs at weekends. He later admitted assaulting a police officer.

In the main trial a jury found him guilty of forcing himself on a 43-year-old mother after picking her up at an Aberdeen nightclub and taking her back to his flat in Bridge of Don.

Gordon has been protesting his innocence ever since the incident in August 2001. He was freed after serving four years of a five-year sentence but is continuing to appeal against his conviction with the backing of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice.

At the trial in September 2002 the complainant said Gordon had pulled her on to his living room floor, pulled her clothes off and had sex with her, ignoring her protests. Gordon insisted the woman was a willing partner – but a jury rejected his claims and found him guilty.

The court heard that Gordon had treated the investigation as "a huge joke" and said he could not remember what had happened because he had bedded 15 women in the previous fortnight.

At the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday, Gordon – conducting his own defence – claimed that Grampian Police had held back forensic evidence that would have helped his case.

The appeal before Lady Paton, sitting with Lords Carloway and Philip, continues.