Aberdeen rapist jailed for nine years

A serial rapist who attacked two women and a schoolgirl during a catalogue of offending against victims was jailed for more than nine years today.

Martyn Daniel carried out his first sex assault on a 15-year-old girl in 2007 and continued his crime spree up until 2015.

A judge told Daniel, 35, at the High Court in Edinburgh that his sexual offending revealed "a disturbing attitude towards women".

Lord Summers said: "You have little regard for their dignity or autonomy. These were persons you used and exploited for your personal gratification."

The judge jailed Daniel, formerly of Urquhart Road, in Aberdeen, for a total of nine years and seven months and ordered that he be subject to supervision for a further three year period.

Daniel had denied raping the victims but was earlier convicted of a string of charges including rape, assault, malicious damage and breach of the peace committed in Aberdeen.

His counsel Shelagh McCall QC said Daniel had served a sentence previously for drink driving in 2015 and had been trying to stabilise his life when the latest allegations against him came to light.

She said: "He has indicated he would co-operate with any programmes in custody to address such issues as he has."

The defence counsel said: "What I cannot get away from in the end is the seriousness of the convictions. He recognises, of course, that a custodial sentence is inevitable."

Daniel targeted his first rape victim in the autumn of 2007 when he attacked the girl in a car at the esplanade in Aberdeen.

The woman, now aged 25, told his trial that she was at school at the time but also had a part-time job and met him through that.

She said they met up to play pool but she took a girlfriend along. She said she was a bit nervous but they had met up outside an amusement arcade.

Her friend left to get a bus and Daniel offered to give her a lift home. She said: "I was a bit anxious but I obviously trusted him enough that I went to meet him in the first place."

"I assumed we were driving to my house but we ended up pulling up on the beach front," she said. She said it was dark and she felt "a bit scared" and asked what he was doing.

She said Daniel began trying to kiss her and was "quite forceful" and came on top of her. She said she told him "no" numerous times during the sex attack that followed.

She said: "I kind of just went into another world. I tried to black out what was happening."

The woman said that after the attack she was "scared, upset, embarrassed and worried". She added: "I spoke to nobody about what happened. I was quite young so I didn't know if people would believe me."

Another victim of Daniel told the court that in 2008 he had ripped up all her money. She said: "I had about £200 in notes. It was the last 200 and he had ripped it up into tiny pieces so that I had no money."

The woman was later subjected to a rape after he locked her in a flat in Aberdeen and when she tried to leave he grabbed her by the neck and held a knife against her.

Daniel also squeezed the neck of a third woman and punched and kicked her and spat on her face and pulled her hair. During one attack he repeatedly kicked her on the head and caused her to lose consciousness.

He also repeatedly raped the woman and at one point in 2014 threatened to drive her and her daughter to the city's harbour and leave them there