Edinburgh Man who repeatedly raped schoolgirl jailed

Published 31st Mar 2017

A man who repeatedly raped a schoolgirl and continued to commit sex crimes against children after he was freed on bail was jailed for eight years today.

Arron Kossatz (20) raped his 13-year-old victim when she was heavily under the influence of drink at a flat in Leith.

Kossatz also had unlawful sex with a girl aged 14 and 15 in the same area of the city and went on to have underage intercourse with a third child aged 13 within weeks of being released on two bail orders from Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

A judge told him: "It is clear, both from these offences and the background information that I have before me, that you have a well-established predilection for sexual activity with female children."

Michael O'Grady QC added at the High Court in Edinburgh: "It is apparent from the present offences alone that you cannot control it."

The judge said that Kossatz had targeted the "troubled and vulnerable" rape victim for repeated and regular abuse "in the most extreme fashion".

He said: "It is clear that the effect upon her has been dreadful and I suspect that it is not overstating matters to say that her life has been blighted and is likely to remain so."

"There can be no excuses for such behaviour and it merits significant punishment," he told Kossatz.

The judge said: "You accept no guilt, shoulder no responsibility and show no empathy for your victims."

He added: "It is also abundantly clear that you are resistant to any assistance with, or management." The judge said Kossatz was prepared to resort to deceit to avoid intervention and control.

The judge told the rapist: "My first concern therefore has to be protection of the public in general, and female children in particular."

He said that could only be achieved in the immediate future by "a significant custodial sentence" followed by supervision on his release. He ordered that Kossatz be kept under supervision for a further four years.

Mr O'Grady told Kossatz that he took into account that he was a young man at the time of the offences and had faced significant problems in his background.

But he told the sex offender that that there were aspects of his crimes which were "deeply troubling".

Kossatz, formerly of Lady Nairne Crescent, Edinburgh, began preying on the girl who was subjected to repeated rapes when he was aged 16 in 2013.

He had sex with the girl aged 14 and 15 in 2012 and 2013 and on October 31 in 2014 at a house in the Granton area of Edinburgh had sex with the 13-year-old girl. He was released on bail on October 6 and 13 that year at the city's sheriff court.

Kossatz was convicted of the sex offending following an earlier trial and has been held in custody since then.

Defence counsel David Nicolson said that garage worker Kossatz came from an "utterly dysfunctional" background. He said: "He relies on others for day to day functioning."

Mr Nicolson said that it was true when a background report on him said he had limited awareness of the impact of his offending because he had limited understanding.

He said: "He seems to be incapable of understanding how damaging the conduct might be."

The defence counsel said Kossatz had been bullied at school and one witness had indicated that he hung around with younger people because he was so immature.