A taxi driver who raped a sleeping woman in an Edinburgh flat has been jailed for seven years.
Rory Crawford, 34, went into a bedroom where the 21-year-old was sleeping after a night out and carried out the sex attack on her.
Crawford, from Edinburgh, had earlier denied raping the woman at a flat in the city on 28 December 2014.
However, a jury at his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh convicted him of the crime on a majority verdict.
Crawford continued raping the woman even after she woke up.
Judge Michael O’Grady said: “I have already made it plain I regard this crime as very grave and cowardly.”
‘Distress and humiliation’
Mr O’Grady earlier told the cab driver: “Rape is always a hideous and cowardly crime.”
He said the offence brought “pain, distress and humiliation” for the woman and said the crime had “a sinister and rather predatory overtone which is disturbing”.
The court heard that the victim had gone out with a female friend in Edinburgh and was spending the night at her flat in the city.
Crawford was also out and met up with them at a club before also returning to the flat.
He went into a bedroom where the woman was sleeping and raped her.
Defence solicitor advocate John Keenan said: “He appreciates inevitably a custodial sentence must follow from his conviction on this offence.”
Mr Keenan said Crawford had been assessed as high risk but said that appeared to mainly relate to him continuing to maintain his innocence.
Crawford was earlier placed on the sex offenders’ register.
BBC
