Fife rapist Steven Banks demanded teenager 'change into Rangers top' before abusing her

A “sly, manipulative” child abuser who asked a schoolgirl who had “just turned 16” to change into his Rangers top before raping her has been jailed for 11 years.

Steven Banks, who was then 27, went on to sexually assault, attempt to rape, and then rape, another girl over a period of more than two years, beginning when he was 30 and she was only ten.

One of the girls told police that he was “sly, manipulative, and vindictive”.

Judge Lord Young told Banks, now 39: “Those words fit the picture.

“The abuse continued for about two years, and you sought to hide what you’d done, by telling her that what’d happened was a secret.

“This was a gross breach of trust as well as a pattern of grooming.”

Lord Young said that according to a victim impact statement from the first victim, “there was almost no aspect of her life that had not been affected by the damage caused.”

But he said she was clearly now “a resilient young woman who had achieved much in her life and clearly determined not to let your criminal actions dictate her future”.

The rape of the older of the two girls, now 28, occurred in the bedroom of Banks’ mother’s home in Ballingry, Fife, between August and September 2011.

The second girl, who is now aged 19, was raped and subjected to attempted rape at two addresses in Lochgelly and in a van parked in Cowdenbeath, both Fife, between February 2014 and some time in 2016.

Both victims eventually reported Banks to the police.

Banks, of Ballingry, appeared for sentence at the High Court in Stirling, by video link from Perth Prison, after being found guilty at the High Court in Livingston in July.

He had denied the offences.

Banks – who has a previous conviction for dealing cocaine – is already serving a 12-year sentence imposed four years ago for his role as a getaway driver in a £6,000 robbery at a supermarket in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, England.

He had worked at the Tesco store as a shelf-stacker.

The robbery, in 2017, left one female employee with post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, panic attacks and flashbacks.

Lord Young ordered the rape sentence should run concurrent to the Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court sentence for the robbery, for which Banks is due to be released in September 2025 – effectively adding about nine years behind bars.

He ordered Banks, who he said had shown no remorse and had not accepted any responsibility for what he did to the girls, to be placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and imposed a non-harassment order requiring him to stay away from his victims indefinitely.