A man who raped a 12-year-old while he was banned from going near young girls was yesterday jailed for six years.
Alexander Mitchell, 23, was on bail accused of having sex with two 13-year-olds when he lured the 12-year-old girl into his bed and raped her.
Jailing Mitchell at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Boyd told him: “You asked a 12-year-old girl to climb in your bedroom window and took advantage of her and raped her.
“At the time you were on bail for having sex with two 13-year-olds. You have an obvious interest in under-age girls.”
Lord Boyd said that he would have jailed Mitchell for nine years, but for his guilty plea.
He also ordered Mitchell, who is assessed as posing a high risk to young girls, to be monitored in the community for two years after his release from jail. Mitchell was also placed on the sex offenders’ register.
Mitchell, who has lived at addresses in Ross-shire and Sutherland, made contact with his young victim through social media and then met her and encouraged her to climb into the house through a window.
This was despite the fact he had been granted bail after a sheriff court appearance with a condition that he would not be in the company of girls aged under 16.
Police were alerted that a young girl had climbed through a window and when Mitchell answered the door he appeared to be nervous.
Advocate depute Ian Wallace said that Mitchell was pale, sweaty and fidgety but insisted that there was no one else in the house.
They spotted the girl lying in a bedroom but at the time she said they had just been talking and smoking cigarettes.
But in March last year, the girl finally revealed what had happened with Mitchell.
Shesaid she had not told the truth about the incident in 2014 “as she was scared of getting into trouble”, the court heard.
Mitchell admitted raping the girl when she was 12-years-old in June 2014 at a house near Invergordon.
Mitchell, a labourer, has a number of previous convictions for sexual offences.
In court, his defence counsel Lorraine Glancy handed Lord Boyd a letter in which he expressed his remorse for raping the girl.
Miss Glancy said: “Since the incident he has had not further contact with his victim. He is now a 23-year-old man he knows what he did was wrong.”
She said that at the time of the rape Mitchell was 20 and after the tragic death of a friend he had taken to misusing alcohol and drugs.
Mitchell showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence.
Detective Sergeant Lynne Baptie of Public Protection Unit, said: “Alexander Mitchell targeted his vulnerable young victim and exploited her in the most horrific way. It is down to the victim’s courage in reporting the incident and engaging with officers and partner agencies that Mitchell was convicted and prevented from potentially causing harm to other young people.”
