I feared escaped inmate was about to rape me, prison officer tells court

A PRISON officer told a court she thought notorious criminal Jimmy Holland was going to rape her when he “pointed a knife” at her in her living-room.

Christine Robertson, 45, was found naked in bed with Holland – described as one of the “most dangerous and feared prisoners in Scotland” – after he absconded from Castle Huntly open prison last March.

Robertson, who was one of the officers who guarded Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi during his trial at Kamp van Zeist, claims she was coerced into keeping Holland at her flat in Reform Street, Monifieth, Angus.

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Robertson, giving evidence in her defence, yesterday claimed Holland had become “infatuated” with her, before threatening her if she did not exchange phone calls, text messages and letters with him.

She said Holland’s feelings were not reciprocated by her, but she sent him the messages as she feared he would give her address to “his brothers and their friends”.

In one message she described how she wanted him in a “nice silky bed”.

Robertson told her trial at Dundee Sheriff Court that on 16 March last year she was at home when her phone rang, with the caller saying her friend “Pickled Pete” had been involved in an incident in nearby Broughty Ferry.

Robertson said she had got in her car to go to her friend’s aid, but had was unable to find him.

She told the court Holland then appeared and said: “All right.”

She added: “He was standing eating a bag of chips, as if it was something you just do.”

She told the court he claimed he was on home leave at a bail hostel in Dundee, but did not have enough money to get back there.

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Robertson said she decided to drive him back, but had to return home first to get money as her car had only “three or four miles” worth of fuel in it.

She told the court that when she got home, she told Holland to stay in the car while she got her purse. But she said that moments after she gone into the house, he appeared in her hallway. The warder said Holland then went into her kitchen and took a knife from a block, saying he would “need it for going to Glasgow”.

Robertson said: “I feared the worst – that he would stab me or rape me.”

She said that she tried to reason for him with two hours, before he became angry and told her: “Go through to the bedroom and strip off.”

Robertson said she did so, then lay in bed for more than six hours, alone and naked, while Holland made phone calls in the living-room.

Robertson said she eventually heard Holland in the bathroom – just as police started to batter her door down. She said Holland entered the bedroom for the first time just as police crashed into the flat to arrest him.

Robertson denies aiding and abetting James Holland in absconding and attempting to defeat the ends of justice. She has lodged a special defence of coercion. The trial continues.