Case study: Usual supervision not enough for Ryan Yates

RYAN Yates, 32, was told he will probably never be released from jail after he tried to murder a woman so that he could abduct and rape her granddaughters.

He was given a life-long restriction order after he attacked the 60-year-old with a knife in an Aberdeen park in October 2009. The woman fought back to protect her granddaughters, who were then aged two and eight.

Yates – who has committed indecency crimes since the age of 14 – had been visited by police that morning as part of measures to stop his reoffending.

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (Sopo) when he was convicted in 2010 of trying to murder the pensioner.

Under the extended sentence, he was to have been detained for four years and then kept under supervision in the community for three years. But after he was released, concerns grew about his behaviour and he was quickly recalled to custody and spent the rest of the sentence behind bars.

A report into the way the authorities dealt with Yates said those monitoring him were “limited in their ability to manage the risks” he posed.

The significant case review stated that had the Sopo and other powers been in place, “opportunities to intervene and return him to custody may have been acted upon”.

The report made a number of recommendations, including calling on the Scottish Government to consider introducing a GPS tagging system to monitor high-risk offenders in the community.

ANDREW WHITAKER