Man convicted of string of sex attacks in Edinburgh

A rapist with an obsession for women's feet was warned he faced a substantial prison sentence today.

Gareth Robertson smelled the feet and socks of one victim and grabbed, held and stared at the feet of another woman he sexually assaulted.

One victim told the High Court in Edinburgh that she tried to pull away from him and called him "a beast" but he acted like she was not there.

She said: "His eyes were staring into space. It was as if for him the room was empty."

Robertson, 28, had denied a string of charges during a trial but was found guilty of seven offences, including the rape of a teenage girl, the attempted rape and sexual assault of another woman.

He was also convicted of carrying out sexual activity in the presence of children, assaulting a woman with a glass bottle and showing a video containing images of him masturbating with a sock to two women.

All the offences occurred at addresses in Edinburgh between 2012 and 2017.

A judge told Robertson: "You have been convicted by the jury's verdict of a number of serious sexual offences, extending to the rape of a vulnerable, young woman and attempted rape."

Lord Pentland said: "It is inevitable that a substantial custodial penalty will be imposed upon you given the gravity of these offences."

Robertson was freed on bail at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year with a condition that he was not to enter the city.

The judge told him following his conviction: "There is no prospect of bail being continued whatsoever."

Lord Pentland said he was interested in obtaining a risk assessment on Robertson "in the troubling circumstances of this case".

The court heard that Robertson, of Quarry Street, New Stevenston, near Motherwell, in Lanarkshire, had previous convictions for assault.

Defence counsel Tim Niven-Smith said he had to concede that imprisonment was "inevitable" given the serious and repeated nature of the offending.

Lord Pentland called for a background report to be prepared on Robertson ahead of sentencing next month and remanded the rapist in custody. He was placed on the sex offenders' register.

The court heard that Robertson subjected a 17-year-old girl to rape ordeals in the city between February 2013 and February the following year.

The woman was also subjected to a rape bid by him when he exposed himself to her during an assault. She was also hit on the body by him with a glass bottle when she was pregnant.

The prosecutor said Robertson had persistently pursued a course of criminal conduct which had a "striking and unusual feature this obsession with feet".

Robertson was acquitted of further sexual assaults against another woman, including an allegation that he grabbed her feet and masturbated using them.