67-year-old man convicted of raping woman he found drunk in Glasgow park

A lorry driver’s been found guilty of raping a 22-year-old stranger after finding her lying drunk in a bus shelter in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park.

At the High Court in Glasgow, Joseph Hail, 67, was found guilty of driving his victim to Cumbernauld and forcing himself on her in the back seat of his car in August 2018.

Hail, a grandfather, claimed he had consensual sex with her.

Days later he went to her home and posted the purse she had dropped in his car through her letterbox.

In evidence, the 22-year-old victim said that she remembered leaving a party at the Sanctuary nightclub and broke down crying as she recalled: “My next memory is of lying in the back seat of a car. There was a man in between my legs. I remember hearing like a moan coming from the man.”

Prosecutor Lisa Gillespie asked the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons: “Did he say anything to you,” and the witness replied: “No.”

Ms Gillespie then asked: “Do you remember getting into the car,” and she replied: “No.”

When asked to described the man she said: “He was older.”

The woman was asked what was the next thing she remembered and replied: “I was sitting on the grass. I was crying. I was just scared I couldn't remember what had happened.”

She addd: “One of my shoes was tied differently from the other and my pants were all twisted.”

The court heard that the woman eventually managed to get in touch with her mother and the police were phoned.

An intimate swab was taken and the DNA matched Hail, from Bonnyridge.

The court heard that days after the rape Hail put the woman's missing purse through her letterbox.

He was asked how he got her address and replied: “I got her driver's licence with her address on it. I chapped the door and sat there all afternoon. I went back the next night and the purse was too thick to got through, then on the following morning I managed to get the purse thorough the letterbox.”

Hail then tried twice in September to get in contact with his victim on Facebook.

When asked about this he replied: “I was thinking to go on to see if she got her purse alright.”

He claimed they had consensual sex and added: “It just happened. It was her that came on to me.”

The rape took place at an unknown location in Cumbernauld on August 27, 2018.

The court heard that Hail was also convicted of sexually assaulting two girls, aged 16 and 19, in the early hours of the morning on October 1, 2018 in Kelvingrove Park.

Judge Lord Matthews placed Hail on the sex offender's register, remanded him in custody and deferred sentence until later this month.

Defence counsel Louise Arrol will give her plea in mitigation then.

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