A drug trafficking rapist who preyed on teenage girls during sex attacks in Inverness was jailed for 11 years today.
Adam Pentacost, 34, used force to commit a series of rapes involving two much younger victims during assaults in the Highland capital.
Pentacost did not wear a condom during the attacks on the teenagers and one contracted a sexual infection after being raped by him.
A judge told Pentacost at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Your conduct was predatory with significant elements of planning on your part.”
Lord Doherty added: “You have expressed no remorse for these offences and continue to deny your guilt.”
Remorseless predator bit his victims during their ordeals
The judge ordered Pentacost to be placed under supervision in the community for a further two years following his future release from prison.
During that time he will be on licence and could be re-jailed if he breaches the conditions of the court order.
Pentacost had denied a series of charges during an earlier trial but was convicted of two drug crimes and five sexual offences.
During proceedings, he admitted being concerned with the supply of cannabis between June 2020 and August 2022 at an address in Inverness and elsewhere.
He also admitted to being concerned with the supply of the Class A drug cocaine between January and August 2022.
Pentacost was convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old girl at a lane in the Highland city on an occasion between April and July in 2021 and subjected the victim to a rape after she was 16 the following year in Inverness.
During the rape, Pentacost lifted the teenager off the floor and threw her into a bed before biting her during the ordeal.
The victim told the court that she was scared of Pentacost, who had supplied her with drugs.
Drug trafficker’s lawyer said his client was in debt and involved ‘with the wrong sort of people’
Pentacost raped his second teenage victim on three occasions at an address in Inverness between September 2021 and July the following year.
During two of the assaults, he bit her breasts.
The court heard that police recovered cannabis and cocaine during a search of a property at Tomnahurich Street in Inverness, where Pentacost was present.
Pentacost told the court he was a regular user of cannabis and, after accepting that he was supplying it along with cocaine, he said: “It’s not something I am proud of.”
He said he got into debt and “got involved with the wrong sort of people”.
Defence counsel Lorenzo Alonzi said that, although Pentacost has a record, it was not for similar offending.
He told the court there was hope that, after maturing during his prison sentence, he will pursue a life without further offending.
Pentacost was placed on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period following his sentencing.
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