Police powerless to act over alleged sex attack on six-year-old

Published on Saturday 10 May 2008 20:06

POLICE and prosecutors have admitted they are powerless to act against a young man suspected of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, unless he strikes again.

A sexual crime expert last night warned that the man – who was also accused of raping a woman in her 50s while he was a teenager – bears the hallmarks of a future killer. Ray Wyre said the man's offences show similarities with those of Colyn Evans, the adolescent sex offender who murdered Karen Dewar, 16, in Tayport, Fife, in 2005.

The grandmother of the little girl has hit out at the failure to charge the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and the failure of the police to keep her family informed.

The woman said: "This is a very dangerous man. He lured my grandchild into the home of his father, who lives nearby, telling her he had puppies there, took her into a bedroom and pulled down her trousers and pants, then tried to kiss her on the mouth.

"It was only because he was on his knees and unsteady through either drink or drugs that she managed to push him off balance and make a run for the back door.

"She stopped at the end of an alleyway by his dad's house and looked back. He was at the back door and calling out that she should come back, he'd made a mistake, and that the puppies were in another house. She ran off. If she hadn't got out of the house, she would have been seriously sexually assaulted, and we can't be certain she'd ever have been allowed to walk out of there and come home to tell the tale."

The incident happened during last year's summer holidays on Friday, July 27.

Strathclyde Police confirmed that it had investigated the allegation and had submitted a report to the procurator fiscal, but admitted it was an 'information only' report, not one recommending prosecution. A spokeswoman said this was because of a lack of corroboration.

However, she added that the file had been left open and the case could be revisited if another similar allegation was received about the same man.

It has emerged that an allegation of rape was made against the same man a few years ago when he was still a teenager.

The alleged victim was a woman in her 50s who has problems with alcohol.

He escaped prosecution on that occasion by claiming the woman had consented. Her alcoholism made her a potentially unreliable witness.

Sex crime expert Ray Wyre said the man sounded extremely dangerous. He said: "Offenders who target both sexes, target potential victims across a wide age range and who are prepared to abduct are the sex offenders most likely to kill.

"An offender who targets a child in their own area is not going to abuse that child and let him or her walk out to tell their mother. It's very fortunate that this little girl managed to escape."