Uncle found guilty after sex with 15-year-old niece

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The 28-year-old had sex with the teenage girl in his bedroom after she visited his flat for a barbecue on 27 July last year.

His niece then texted her mother asking her to pick her up and take her home, then broke down in the car.

She accused her uncle of raping her and he was later interviewed and charged by the police.

The Aberdeen man then hatched a plan to flee from Scotland and secure work and accommodation abroad when he was on bail.

He phoned his father and asked him to set up an appointment at the passport office.

But the information was passed on to the police and he was charged, along with his mother and father, with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He went on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of raping his niece this week and faced an alternative charge of incest. His parents’ not guilty pleas to attempting to pervert the course of justice were previously accepted by the Crown.

The court heard that the 28-year-old’s father had made no arrangements to help his son leave the country.

Yesterday, a jury of eight men and seven women took 40 minutes to find the man guilty of incest instead of rape.

The trial had heard that he was close to his niece and she had considered him to be like a brother. He planned to get married and wanted her to be one of his flower girls.

The 15-year-old girl later claimed that she did not want to have sex with her uncle and said she had used all her force to resist him.

Defence advocate Ronnie Renucci said his client admitted having sex with his niece and had lodged a special defence of consent.

Mr Rennuci told the jury in his closing speech: “This is perhaps an unusual case.

“I’m not standing here asking you to acquit him of all charges on the indictment, but rather you have been asked to decide what offence he committed, rape or the alternative charge, that of incest. I’m asking you to find him guilty, but only of what he is guilty of, the alternative charge of incest.”

Mr Renucci said his client accepted that he should have behaved as an adult on the day of the offence and would now have to pay the price for his actions.

The 28-year-old admitted the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice before the trial started.

Lord Jones deferred sentence for background reports to the High Court in Edinburgh on 29 April.