A rapist who preyed on a sleeping woman after he was freed on six separate bail orders has been jailed for five years.
Coran Wells, 22, committed sex attacks against two vulnerable victims within a week in Stornoway, on Lewis, in the Western Isles.
Wells molested a 17-year-girl who he had only met that day, before striking again seven days later when he committed the rape of the adult woman.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told him: “Both of your victims were distressed afterwards as a result of your unwanted behaviour.”
Lady Poole said she took into account the sentencing guidance for young persons, noting that he lacked maturity at the time of his offending.
But she told Wells: “A conviction for rape to injury and sexual assault must attract a significant prison sentence”.
Wells denied a series of sex charges
In addition to jailing him for five years, Lady Poole ordered that Wells should be under supervision for a further year when he will be on licence in the community and can be returned to jail if he breaches its conditions.
The judge said that six months of the prison sentence was to reflect Wells breaching bail.
He had denied a series of sex charges during an earlier trial but was found guilty of two offences – the sexual assault on the teenager committed at an address in Stornoway on June 20 in 2021 and the rape of the 39-year-old on June 27 that year in the Hebridean town.
During the attack on the teenager, he repeatedly touched her thigh and stomach, lay on top of her and held her neck and face.
Rapist was ‘labouring under an addiction to drugs’
A week later, he got into the sleeping woman’s bed – while she was incapable of consenting – and pulled down her lower clothing, put an arm around her neck and raped his victim, who was left bruised.
At the time he committed the rape, he was freed under four bail orders from Inverness Sheriff Court and a further two from Stornoway Sheriff Court.
The court heard that Wells has previous convictions, including for threatening and abusive behaviour, drugs and theft, but had not previously offended sexually.
Defence counsel Frances Connor said that, at the time of the offending, Wells was “labouring under an addiction to drugs”.
She said he was heavily under the influence of drugs when the rape occurred.
She told the court: “He accepts that his behaviour was troublesome when he was younger, but never did he envisage he would be convicted of sexual offences”.
“He credits drugs for blighting his life. It is his intention to access as much support as he can to help him remain drug free,” she said.
The defence counsel said that Wells, who has been on remand since June 2021, did not wish to return to Stornoway after serving his sentence.
Lady Poole told Wells, who followed the sentencing hearing via a video link from prison, that he would be placed on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.
For all the latest court cases in Inverness as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our new Facebook group.
