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.

‘He is a danger to anyone he is in contact with’: Former partner of Kim Avis on why he should never be released

Ex-girlfriend tells BBC documentary about helping to bring a rapist to justice.

Kim Avis
The new BBC podcast - Dead Man Running - will tell the story of former Inverness busker and convicted rapist Kim Avis.

The former partner of convicted rapist Kim Avis said he should never be released from prison.

Jade Skea knew Avis for more than a decade, having met him when she was just 15.

She became involved with the Inverness busker when she was 18 and he was 42 and they lived together in a caravan in woods near the city.

But she said the man who thought of himself as a wolf, became violent and controlling and also raped her.

The busker with a dark secret

Avis was known to many in Inverness where he sold jewellery from a pitch in the city centre.

He also raised thousands of pounds for charity and revelled in his status as a minor local celebrity.

With his hippy-style straggly hair and bandana, he was regarded generally as strange rather than dangerous. His charity work offered another layer of credible eccentricity.

But for years he managed to hide his criminal secret as a sexual predator who raped and molested a number of women and girls.

Jade Skea reported Kim Avis after years of abuse. Image: BBC

When his crimes began to emerge, he fled to the US where he faked his own death in an effort to escape justice.

From an Inverness street trader, Avis had become an international fugitive who went on the run for months.

In 2021 he was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of 14 charges.

A new BBC Disclosure programme, Dead Man Running, to be screened tonight tells the story of Avis’s double life and his extraordinary failed bid to escape justice.

Avis ‘likened himself to a predatory animal’

Jade tells the programme she became Avis’s girlfriend in 2005 and was “besotted” with him,

He isolated her from friends and took her bank card, leaving her often alone in the caravan.

“Looking back now, I know that part of the plan was to just have me cut off from everything,”, she said.

She said Avis likened himself to predatory animals, like wolves and lions, and named his house Wolves Den.

Kim Avis went on the run in America. Image: BBC

Jade recalls  that one night he stood on a table and began howling and making bizarre animal noises. After that, she said Avis raped her for the first time.

On another occasion he smacked her head off a headboard and then got on top of her and started punching her.

Another time, she said, he threw her down stairs when she was pregnant.

She added: “One night he arrived home and forced himself on me when I was already in bed. He was holding down my arms and legs.

“I was feeling like there there is nothing I can do. I have nobody, that this was the end and this was going to be my life forever. I felt I’d given up.”

More women came forward

But in 2015 she went to the police: “I felt at that point I knew I had to do that. There was no other option.

“He never thought I’d ever report him to the police. I don’t think he thought I had that in me.

“I’m certainly happier and in a much better place than I was seven or eight years ago.”

After a police investigation was launched three other women came forward saying Avis had raped and abused them too.

Monastery Beach. California where Avis disappeared. Image BBC

Avis should have originally stood trial in March 2019.

But the then 57-year-old had fled to California where he was later reported missing on February 25 by his 17-year-old son Reuben.

He was said to have last been seen going for a swim at Monastery Beach in Carmel.

The case was initially treated as a missing person, with widespread searches carried out by the local coastguard, a sheriff office drone and a dive team.

At first his disappearance was greeted with shock and sympathy among people in Inverness.

But on the third day police realised it was a hoax. A manhunt over the intervening months finally ended with Avis being caught 1,300 miles away in Colorado.

‘I don’t want to see his face again’

At his trial in Glasgow, Jade gave evidence behind a screen. She said: “I didn’t want to see his face. I never want to see his face again.

“I remember him making noises when I was giving evidence, making me aware of his presence.”

On his sentence, she said: “You would think it would feel like this massive relief, but it wasn’t like that.

“It just felt like your whole body was vibrating almost.

Avis became a fugitive after trying to fake his own death. Image BBC

“I don’t think he should ever be released. He is a danger to anyone he is in contact with in some way.

“And even if he’s not a physical threat, he will absolutely ruin anyone he is around long enough.”

Disclosure: Dead Man Running, 9 pm BBC One Scotland, Wednesday 27, March, also available on iPlayer today.

Conversation