Rapist who attacked sleeping woman jailed for four years

A man who raped a sleeping woman was jailed for four and a half years yesterday as a judge recommended that the victim's 'powerful' statement be drawn to the attention of Scotland's senior law officer.

Darren Anderson was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh. Picture: Ian Georgeson

Jailing Darren Anderson, 26, for his attack on the woman in December 2014, Lord Turnbull said: “I have read the content of the victim impact statement provided by the complainer [victim] in this case and it really was quite troubling because the young lady is obviously quite articulate and able to explain quite powerfully the impact which this event had on her life.”

The judge said part of the impact she described related “to the lengthy period of time which passed between the incident and the trial”.

A preliminary hearing in the case was held a year after the attack, with the trial getting underway in June this year.

Lord Turnbull said he would suggest that given the powerful and articulate way the impact of the passage of time had been expressed by the victim it should be brought to the attention of the Lord Advocate so he could see the harmful effect it had on people.

The victim had dozed off fully clothed on a couch at the house during a visit to a friend’s home in Livingston, in West Lothian but woke to find Anderson having sex with her.

She ran upstairs to where a friend had gone to bed to alert her to her plight and continued weeping even after police were called and realised she was in pain from the assault.

Anderson, of Morrison Way, Livingston, had denied raping the woman while she was asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent on 20 December in 2014, but was earlier convicted by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The 23-year-old woman told the trial: “I did not want to have sex with him at all.”

She said was at a friend’s house with others and a game of Spin the Bottle was played during which the woman was dared to kiss Anderson, which she did. Anderson had asked her to go upstairs, saying it would “wind up” another of the men at the house.

The woman, who had had a few drinks, said that she had kissed him again, but when he made a further advance on her she told him to stop and he did.

The judge told Anderson he had taken sexual advantage of a young woman who was sleeping and whom he had only met on the evening of the attack.

Defence solicitor advocate Peter Mullin said Anderson continued to maintain his innocence. Anderson was placed on the sex offenders’ register.