Ross rapist jailed for 11 years

A RAPIST from Ross-shire who subjected his three terrified victims to "gross sexual cruelty" has been jailed for more than eleven years.

William Beattie (51) subjected the women to degrading ordeals at addresses in Ross-shire and was last month found guilty of a series of horrifying offences over nearly two decades.

A trial at the High Court in Edinburgh heard details of a catalogue of sex offences dating back to April 1994.

Beattie returned to court today (Tuesday) to be sentenced, and was told by judge Lord Uist he had been convicted of "a prolonged course of sexual abuse."

The judge continued: "Threats and violence were used by you to enable you to engage in disgusting and depraved conduct as well as to commit many rapes.

"Vulnerable victims were subjected to degrading and humiliating experiences by you and it is not going too far to describe what you did to them as gross sexual cruelty."

Beattie, formerly of an address in Easter Ross but now of 63 Cook Street, Glasgow, had denied all the charges against him, dismissing the women’s stories as "a pile of rubbish"

Solicitor-advocate John Keenan, defending, told the court today that Beattie continued to protest his innocence.

Lord Uist told Beattie: "You have continued to call your victims liars, you have continued to deny your guilt and have shown no remorse whatsoever."

Sending him to prison for eleven years and two months, Lord Uist said the sentence would have been twelve years if Beattie had not spent time on remand, waiting for trial.

The trial heard how a 39-year-old woman - who cannot be identified - woke up to find Beattie indecently assaulting her with a shotgun. She also told the trial she suffered physical violence at Beattie’s hands.

He locked her in a house in Alness, tied her to a bed and poured wax on her body. Beattie was also found guilty of threatening her, throwing her against a wall and pushing her down a flight of stairs and squeezing her throat until she passed out.

A second victim, aged 50, told how Beattie forced her into sexual acts. He soaked her with water as she slept, to make her share a bed with him. Beattie also threatened her with a knife, stabbing it into a door as they argued.

A 65-year-old woman described how Beattie forced his way into her home in Invergordon and subjected her to physical and sexual violence.

During the trial Beattie was cleared of allegations that he had poisoned fish in a garden pond, vandalised a car and daubed offensive graffiti on the wall of a house in Invergordon.