Paedophile just out of prison tried to murder woman so he could rape her granddaughters

Published on Wednesday 27 January 2010 19:44

A SERIAL sex offender who had just been released from prison tried to murder a pensioner in a park with her granddaughters so he could rape the girls.

Ryan Yates – who has committed indecency crimes since the age of 14 – had been visited by police that morning as part of measures to stop his reoffending

He had been banned from accosting any female in public, but after the officers left his home in Aberdeen, he went out in search of "children to have sex with".

Yates, 29, attacked the 60-year-old woman with a knife, but she desperately fought back to protect her granddaughters, aged eight and two, and he fled.

Police caught him nearby and he said: "I live in a fantasy… I think of a world with no adults, just me and children."

Yates is now facing a possible life sentence. He pleaded guilty to attempting to murder the woman, with intent to abduct and rape the children, on 14 October last year at Westfield Park, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen.

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).

The High Court in Edinburgh heard Yates's criminal record went back to 1994, when he was given four years' detention for offences that included three indecent assaults. There had been another sexual assault in 1999, and in 2002 he received a seven-year extended sentence for a sexual assault on a woman at knifepoint.

Under the extended sentence, he was to have been detained for four years and then kept under supervision in the community for three years. But after he was released, concerns grew about his behaviour and he was quickly recalled to custody and spent the rest of the sentence behind bars.

On the day of the latest attack, the pensioner had been looking after her grandchildren while their mother was at work. She had taken them to the park to collect leaves and play.

At about 11:10am, as she bent down to unbuckle the younger girl from her buggy, she noticed a pair of legs very close to her. She stood up and saw Yates holding a kitchen knife. Without warning, he thrust it towards the woman's chest.

Advocate-depute Alan MacKay told the court: "A brief struggle ensued and she found herself on the ground, on her back with the accused bent over her. She grabbed the bottom of the blade and the top of the handle of the knife and kicked out at him. The elder girl ran from the scene, taking her sister with her in her buggy."

The struggle for the knife continued, and Yates spat in the pensioner's face. A woman in a nearby garden heard screams, thought it was a "domestic argument" and shouted at the pair. Yates stopped the attack, let go of the knife and walked away from the scene.

Police were called, and a description of Yates was issued. Officers saw him close to the park and he was detained. He said: "I tried to stab her… to get to her daughter… the little one ran away and she took the knife off me and started screaming. I was going to stab her and rape her daughter."

Yates said he had gone out "looking to find some children to have sex with". He had intended to kill the woman "so I can get to the kids… rape them, have sex with them, sexually assault them".

The woman was treated in hospital for a cut hand. Mr MacKay said: "She has attended her GP because of raised blood pressure. When she is out walking, she now feels she is constantly looking over her shoulder."

The judge, Lord Pentland, said he wanted a risk assessment carried out on Yates. It is the type of report prepared when a court is considering imposing an order for lifelong restriction, under which an offender can be held in custody indefinitely.

Grampian Police were granted the SOPO three days after Yates was freed from his previous sentence, and officers had visited him at his home in Ashvale Place, Aberdeen, at 8:30am on the day of the attack to discuss the order.

Defending the way the force had monitored Yates, Detective Superintendent Brian Yule said: "

At the time of his arrest, Yates had fully complied with all the conditions relating to his registration and our officers had visited him regularly in the days after his release."

Yates is due to be sentenced in April.

LIFE OF CRIME

Oct 1994: Four years' detention for three charges of indecent assault and two of assault, aged of 14. He then accrues convictions for non-sexual crimes such as breach of the peace and receives short custodial sentences.

Oct 1999: Detained for two years for a sexual assault.

Jan 2003: Appears at the High Court in Aberdeen and is given a seven-year extended sentence, backdated to October 2002 when he was detained following the offence – an assault "with a sexual element".

'He came at me, lunged at my chest with the knife. I grabbed the blade'

THE pensioner who fought off a sex attacker who wanted to rape her granddaughters has described how he "lunged" at her with a knife.

The 60-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, was collecting leaves with the two girls, aged two and eight, when Ryan Yates struck.

She stood her ground and told the youngsters to flee. She suffered severe cuts to her arms and legs but managed to kick Yates, causing him to run off.

The mother-of-two, from Aberdeen, said: "He came at me with a knife so I just kicked him where it hurts.

"It was obvious he wasn't a mugger because I didn't have my handbag or any possessions on me. He lunged at my chest but I grabbed the knife. That's how I got cut."

The woman was looking after her grandchildren on 13 October last year because it was the midterm holidays.

But the trip almost ended in tragedy when they caught the attention of Yates. Just two days before, he had been the subject of a court order banning him from accosting females.

Yesterday he told the High Court in Edinburgh that he planned to kill the woman so he could rape the two girls.

But she took him by surprise when she fought back and began screaming for help.

A neighbour who heard the commotion ran to the scene and found the pensioner covered in blood. The 57-year-old said: "At first I thought a couple were rowing because I heard raised voices. Then the grandmother shouted 'I've been stabbed'. She was covered in blood. It was all over her clothes and glasses.

"I was in total shock that this could happen to a grandmother with two young children in broad daylight."

After Yates ran away, the neighbour took the grandmother and the girls into her house and wrapped the wounds in towels.

The grandmother is now trying to come to terms with the attack. But she has vowed not to let it ruin her life.

Now when she goes out she always takes her dog with her. And she still goes to the park where the attack happened.

She said: "This isn't going to stop me living my life.

"I've always gone to the park every morning and I'm not going to change that now.

"There is no way I'm going to be scared and stay at home. It was a terrible thing to happen, but I'm trying to put it all behind me."