Convicted rapist sent to state hospital

A VICIOUS rapist who kept his battered victim prisoner and made her scrub herself and his home in an attempt to destroy evidence was sent to the State Hospital in Carstairs on Friday.

Judge Lord Uist had previously called for in-depth reports on the risks Andrew Peters, 33, might pose to the public because he was considering a life sentence.

Today the High Court in Edinburgh heard that reports produced so far had raised concerns.

Lord Uist said the risk assessment process should continue but ordered Peters' transfer from prison to hospital.

Peters is due back in court next month for psychiatrists to report on his condition.

An earlier trial heard that during ten hour ordeal, Peters inflicted 33 injuries on a 48-year-old occupational therapist - lured to his Inverness home by her interest in the nearby canal and its boats.

Bits of her broken teeth were found in the hallway of Peters' flat and the woman tried to smear blood behind the headboard of his bed.

"I was thinking: if I am going to die, possibly someone will find it," she said.

After a unanimous verdict of guilty, judge Lord Uist told jurors her evidence had been "harrowing."

Peters was also found guilty of raping a 27-year-old care worker. Both attacks were carried out at his then home in Craigard Place, Inverness.

He was handcuffed to a security guard in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh as the six men and nine women delivered their verdicts.

Earlier the 48-year-old woman told how a chance meeting with Peters - a stranger - in an Inverness pub led to her going to his home. When she tried to leave he attacked her.

"It is something of a blur, but I remember teeth in my mouth," she said.

After a night of terror, she said: "I was like a broken animal wanting to hide by then.

"I just wanted to crawl under the bedclothes and hide."

She told how Peters made bizarre demands - forcing her to pose naked "like a mannequin" as he raped her repeatedly.

He also made her shower and scrub his home to remove evidence.

Medics found she had two black eyes, a broken nose and a bite mark on her breast as well as numerous bruises to her arms, body and legs caused by more than 20 blows.