Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Sex beast let loose on bail to rape 12-year-old girl

Alexander Mitchell
Alexander Mitchell

A convicted sex offender raped a 12-year-old girl while on bail awaiting sentence for child sex crimes.

Alexander Mitchell made contact with his victim through social media before going with her to a relative’s home in a Highland village where he had sex with the child.

Mitchell, 23, had been granted bail after a court appearance in Inverness  –  with a condition that he was not to be in the company of females under 16  –  when he carried out the rape.

Police were alerted that a young female had climbed into the property through a window and officers arrived at the address.

Mitchell answered the door to them but police noticed that he appeared to be nervous.

Advocate depute Ian Wallace told the High Court in Edinburgh that he was pale, sweaty and fidgety but claimed that there was no one else in the house.

Officers spotted the girl lying in a bedroom  –  but at the time she maintained that they had just been talking and smoking cigarettes.

Officers saw a used condom lying on the floor and this later provided a DNA match with the girl.

And in March last year, the girl told a social worker what had really happened with Mitchell almost two years earlier.

She later said she had not told the truth about the incident in 2014 “as she was scared of getting into trouble”, Mr Wallace told the court.

Mitchell, formerly of addresses in Sutherland and Ross-shire, admitted raping the girl on June 15, 2014, at a house in a village near Invergordon when he appeared in court.

The prosecutor told the court that Mitchell, a labourer, had a number of previous convictions for sexual offences.

Sentence had been deferred on him following an earlier court appearance in May 2014 until July that year  –  but he committed the new crime in that period.

Lord Boyd of Duncansby deferred sentence on Mitchell, described as a prisoner in Inverness, until February for the preparation of a background report.

The judge placed Mitchell on the sex offenders register following his guilty plea to rape and remanded him in custody.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Douglas Ross said: “When someone is convicted of a serious crime, people are understandably perplexed as to why they’re allowed out on bail.

“One of jail’s key roles is to keep the public safe, and that’s clearly not happening while dangerous individuals who pose an obvious threat are able to continue to walk the streets while awaiting sentence.”