A man has admitted snatching a woman off the street in broad daylight and subjecting her to a horrifying seven hour rape ordeal.
Twenty-one-year-old Michal Marchlewski, a Polish migrant, plead guilty to abduction, rape and robbery at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday.
Another man accused of acting alongside him, 26-year-old Thomas Kryczyk, committed suicide while in Saughton Prison awaiting trial.
The pair snatched an Australian woman from a path in the Dalry area of the city in February.
The 24-year-old was blinded with a noxious spray while walking through a subway, before being dragged to a makeshift den which the pair had prepared in nearby bushes.
Police say she suffered a sustained sexual assault over a period of around seven hours, before she managed to convince the pair to release her.
The court heard she had been so badly traumatised by the attack that she and her husband had returned to live in Australia, where they are both now receiving counselling.
The attack took place within yards of a Lidl supermarket, a primary school and a 24-hour garage.
At the time, city leaders expressed disbelief and horror at the fact the men were able to carry out the apparently pre-meditated attack without being spotted by witnesses.
The crime sparked a massive manhunt involving 30 police officers dedicated solely to tracing the woman's two attackers.
The pair were later caught but Kryczyk was found dead in his jail cell in April.
Marchlewski has now been remanded in custody to allow for the preparation of a risk assessment. He will return to court on January 7 next year.
