Rapist attacked again only four months after release from jail

Published on Friday 8 August 2008 22:03

A SEXUAL predator dragged a woman off the street, drove her to waste ground and raped her only four months after he was released from a prison sentence for a similar attack.

During the attack Grant McPherson took a phone call from his girlfriend, told her he loved her, and then carried on sexually assaulting his terrified victim.

A judge yesterday said he was considering placing McPherson, 32, on a supervision order for the rest of his life.

McPherson carried out the horrific attack on his 28-year-old victim just four months after being released for a ten-year sentence for an earlier rape. A psychiatrist had claimed after the first court case in 1998 that the incident would be "a one off" if McPherson received treatment.

McPherson yesterday pleaded guilty to the latest attack in which he abducted and raped the woman on 8 May this year.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that McPherson had downed a bottle of Buckfast and up to ten cans of lager before going out in his car at 4am.

His victim – who had had a fight with a friend and had gone to a nearby McDonald's – was walking home when McPherson seized her from behind by the hair, held a knife at her neck and told her to get in his vehicle.

She was then driven to waste ground at Dykehead Road, Airdrie, where McPherson ripped off her clothing and raped her. During the attack, McPherson's girlfriend phoned his mobile and he answered it.

Michael Meehan, prosecuting, told the court: "The accused said to the caller that he would be home soon and that he loved her."

McPherson was caught by police tracking his mobile phone and he was found driving his car in Bridge of Earn, Perthshire.

When McPherson arrived home, he told his girlfriend that he was "a monster" and that he had "raped a lassie". When asked why he had done it, McPherson said he had been having "dark thoughts".

Mr Meehan went on: "He agreed that he was a danger to the public and to women in general and that if he were at liberty and in the street then the same thing would happen again.

"He confessed that the pressure was too much and that he couldn't handle being outside."

McPherson's victim suffered a fractured arm during her ordeal and she now suffers from panic attacks, can't sleep and has hardly been out of her house.

She also finds it difficult to have a normal relationship with her partner and is receiving counselling from Victim Support and Rape Crisis Scotland.

Judge Lord Hodge told McPherson: "You pleaded guilty to a savage and degrading attack on an innocent young woman within four months of being released from jail for a similar offence.

"It is likely that the criteria for a lifelong restriction may be met in your case."

Placing such an order on McPherson would mean he could only be released from prison if he is deemed to be a sufficiently low threat to the public.

Only a handful of such "orders for lifelong restriction" have been issued since the courts were given such powers in June 2006. In May, teenager Darren Cornelius, who knifed a stranger in a frenzied attack, was handed the supervision order at the High Court in Perth.

In 1998, McPherson admitted putting two 17-year-old girls through a knifepoint ordeal in woods in Airdrie. He ran a blade up and down the naked body of one of the teenagers before raping her and sexually assaulting her friend.

McPherson will return to court next month.

After the hearing, his victim described McPherson as "a monster". She said: "I am glad that he has been caught – he is a monster. He is a danger to women. It could have been anybody. I was just unlucky."