Freed sex attacker used ‘rape kit’, court hears

Sean Moynihan trawled his victim's Facebook page to try to dodge justice. Picture: Spindrift

Sean Moynihan attacked the 18-year-old in daylight as she walked along a cycle track in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, last October.

Armed with a “rape kit” including a six-inch blade and condoms, he ordered his victim to strip before forcing her into sex. She told a jury she was left a “mess” after her ordeal.

Moynihan insisted to detectives the sex had been consensual and even claimed the victim had happily spoken about her family and a former lover.

But, in a bid to back up his lies, police believe the 30-year-old scoured her Facebook page after the attack to find out personal information about her.

Moynihan now faces life in jail after being found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of the sex attack.

He was back on the streets after being jailed for more than six years in 2009 for raping another teenage girl.

Moynihan was also apparently under supervision at the time and was already on the sex offenders’ list indefinitely. He has a further conviction for assault and violent offences.

A judge branded him a “very dangerous young man” as sentencing was deferred until  September.

The victim was walking on the cycle track when she was attacked around 2pm on 2 October. She recalled initially seeing Moynihan in front of her.

The teenager thought he was stopping for a rest while out jogging. Moynihan disappeared from view and the victim wept as she told of then being grabbed from behind and a knife put to her neck.

She said: “It was so quick, I did not know how to feel. He was rough . . . and he walked me into the trees.

“He was demanding and I began to feel scared. I knew what was going to happen – I knew that I was going to be raped.”

Moynihan, who also wanted money and ordered the young woman to be quiet, forced her into an area full of nettles.

The victim then remembered Moynihan “aggressively” telling her to strip naked.

She told the trial: “I was crying as I started taking my clothes off. I was saying, ‘Why are you doing this?’.

“He said, ‘Don’t ask silly questions or I will stab you’.”

She went on to described her ordeal. She said she eventually escaped when he allowed her to leave.

Her mother told the jury: “She said that she had been raped and that was when she fell into my arms. I felt sick. When we got home, she sat on the bed and I just held her.”

The teenager told the court how she had never met Moynihan before.

But the jury watched his police interview in which the rapist claimed he had met her weeks earlier outside a local  supermarket.

Moynihan then told detectives how he happened to bump into her at the cycle track and within minutes they were having consensual sex.

He claimed: “The patter was flowing . . . we began kissing. I stated that I liked her and she liked me. She suggested that there is an area that we could go down. We were there for over an hour.”

Moynihan added: “At no time did she say no or in any way hesitate.”

He said when he left the girl, they were “laughing and joking” with the victim appearing  “brilliant”.

The sex attacker named the teenager and insisted she had casually chatted about her mother’s job, an ex-boyfriend and how she got on with her family.

But it is thought Moynihan trawled the victim’s Facebook page shortly after the rape for information.

Prosecutors described this as a “cover-up” in a bid to fool detectives into believing what happened was consensual.

This also included him lying that he was long-term friends with the victim’s cousin.

Moynihan said he had gone on to Facebook, but to “let her down gently” as he did not see anything between them “long- term”.

Moynihan is believed to have been working as a personal trainer after being freed from jail.

He was jailed in 2009 after raping a 16-year-old girl, who thought his car was a taxi. He drove her to Gleniffer Braes in Paisley before forcing the teenager to have sex.

He was also ordered to be supervised for a further three years on his release.

After his latest conviction, Judge Bill Dunlop told him: “The degree of planning to avoid detection can only be described as chilling.”