Man repeatedly raped mother and child over period of five years

Court: Dunbar was jailed for nine years on Wednesday.© Deadline

A paedophile who was caught after his victim spoke to police after watching an Eastenders episode about child abuse has been jailed for nine years.

Mark Dunbar, 29, started abusing the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when she was just seven years old and continued until she was 11.

The girl contracted a sexually transmitted disease from her abuser.

The court also heard how Dunbar raped the girl's mother, who also cannot be named for legal reasons.

At the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Dunbar was sentenced to nine years in jail and a three years supervision order on his release.

Judge John Morris added: "You have been convicted of committing terrible crimes. A custodial sentence is the only appropriate disposal available to me."

Defence advocate Louise Arrol told the court Dunbar was still insisting he was innocent.

She said: "He felt unable to express himself properly when he gave evidence."

Dunbar, from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, was convicted of two charges of rape after a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

He attacked the girl at various addresses in Lanarkshire between 2005 and 2009. Dunbar also raped her 32-year-old mother on various occasions between September 2009 and January 2010.

A jury took just 90 minutes to find Dunbar guilty of raping both victims.

The girl, who is now 14, told the jury Dunbar began touching her private parts when she was six and then alleged that he began to rape her when she was around seven or eight years old.

She told the court the assaults took place "a few times a week".

A doctor had examined the girl after the allegations were made in 2010 and found she had a sexually transmitted disease.

In court her 32-year-old mother broke down as she relived the moment her daughter told her she was being raped by Dunbar.

She said: "She says the same thing is happening to me as what's happening to the girl in Eastenders. I couldn't take it in, it was such a shock."

The woman also told the jury that Dunbar raped her even after she begged him to stop.

Judge Morris also told Dunbar he would spend the rest of his life on the Sex Offenders Register.

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