Man who raped Scottish teen had already been convicted of raping others

A man convicted of sexually attacking a 15-year-old girl at knifepoint is already serving a life sentence for two rapes, a jury heard yesterday.

Sean Moynihan

Sean Moynihan, who was branded “dangerous, especially to females” by a judge, tried to rape the schoolgirl in Paisley in 2008, the High Court at Livingston was told.

He threatened to kill the teenager after dragging her into the bushes beside a cycle path and tearing off her jeans.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury she was too shy to tell police about the rape attempt at the time because her mother was present when detectives interviewed her.

She finally revealed full details about the ordeal in 2016 after prosecutors re-opened the investigation. The Crown got new evidence that DNA from the jeans the teenager was wearing was a one in a billion match for Moynihan’s profile. Moynihan had by then been convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl who mistook his black Skoda Octavia for a private hire taxi after a night out.

He took the girl, who admitted being very drunk, to a remote layby in Paisley and raped her in the back seat of his car before driving her home. Moynihan, who committed the offence less than four weeks before accosting the 15-year-old on the cycle path, was jailed for four years in 2009 for the taxi rape but after being released raped another young woman on the same cycle track in October 2014.

Armed with a “rape kit” – including a six-inch blade and condoms – Moynihan ordered his 18-year-old victim to strip before forcing her into sex.