Dundee man jailed over five-year campaign of sex attacks

A sex predator who raped three sleeping victims during a five year period has been jailed for seven years.

Matthew Ferguson carried out sex crimes against teenagers at houses in Dundee and Galashiels in the Scottish Borders beginning when he was aged only 16.

Ferguson, 24, of Dundee, had earlier denied a series of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, but was found guilty of an indecent assault and three rape offences committed between March 2011 and April 2016.

In all four offences the victims were said to have been asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent.

Ferguson's youngest victim was aged 13 when he sexually assaulted her but months later he raped after she had turned 14.

The woman, now aged 21, told the court that she first fell victim to a sex crime committed by Ferguson when she was staying overnight at a house in Galashiels as a guest at a party.

She later told police that Ferguson had come into the room where she was sleeping and molested her.

She said on a second occasion when she was aged 14 she had not been drinking and said: "I am a very heavy sleeper and groggy when I come to. It took me a minute or so to realise someone was lying on top of me."

She told officers that she felt discomfort and a burning sensation and found it slightly difficult to breathe because of the weight on her.

The victim said she was crying when she later told her father what Ferguson did to her. She said a woman gave her the morning after pill.

A second woman, now 21, told the court that in the spring of 2016 she was staying with her then boyfriend at a bedsit in Dundee when Ferguson visited.

She said he and her boyfriend were discussing a phone app and she fell asleep after midnight. She said Ferguson went to sleep on the floor.

She told advocate depute Richard Goddard QC that the next thing she remembered after falling asleep was "someone on top of me".

The woman told the court: "I was lying on my back and I never lie on my back." She said she did not want to open her eyes and added: "I was too scared."

She said she woke up to her boyfriend shouting: "Get off her." She said Ferguson was still on top of her when she heard the words.

She said she was scared of Ferguson "in case anything else happened". She told the court: "I thought I had been raped."

Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson said a psychiatric report had been prepared but no mental health disposal was suggested for Ferguson.

He told the court: "He intends to take every opportunity afforded to him in the prison system to reduce his risk of re-offending in the future."

Mr Paterson asked the judge, Lady Carmichael, to be as lenient as she felt appropriate in the circumstances of the case and pointed out that most of the offending occurred when Ferguson was a teenager.

He said: "Young individuals do change and do mature and as he grows older he will mature and clearly make better decisions in his life."

Lady Carmichael told Ferguson: "I take into account you intend to use your time in prison to address your offending."

The judge said she took particular account of his age when the crimes were committed and acknowledged he was "still a child" at the time of the earliest offences.

She told Ferguson that he would be on the sex offenders' register for an indefinite period.