Latvian man jailed under new rape law ruling

One of the first men to be convicted in Scotland under a new definition of rape was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Indulis Lukstins, 50, attacked a fellow Latvian at knifepoint after the 21-year-old woman had been lured to this country with the offer of a job as a nanny.

His assault did not go so far as having full intercourse with the victim, which used to be required for a conviction for rape.

However, he forced the woman to perform oral sex on him, which is one of the other penetrative acts now deemed to be rape under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act which came into force at the end of last year.

Lukstins, of Nairn, Highland, claimed that the woman had consented to sexual contact, but he was found guilty by a jury of raping her on 15 January in a lay-by on the A9 between Ralia and Inverness.

The woman told the jury that she had lived in England for two years but returned to Latvia after becoming pregnant. She suffered a miscarriage and wanted to come back to Britain to study psychology and find work.

She saw an internet advertisement for a nanny to a Russian family based in Glasgow, and sent off a CV and photographs.