Lord Advocate calls for increased sentence for Army officer who raped woman in her own home

Scotland’s senior law officer has called for an increased prison sentence to be imposed on an Army officer who raped a woman in her home after contacting her through an internet dating app.

The Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, told the criminal appeal court in Edinburgh that the judge who jailed Calum MacGregor for four and a half years had erred.

She told the Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Beckett, sitting with Lord Doherty and Lord Armstrong: “The Crown say that this was a case where the seriousness of the offence simply was not properly understood by the trial judge.”

She said: “In my submission it is a matter of great public importance that this appeal is advanced and considered.”

The Lord Advocate said it was appropriate to impose a more severe penalty because of the seriousness of the crime committed and it could provide guidance to sentencers generally.

The Lord Advocate told the court: “This was a forceful, aggressive rape.”

She added the woman prepared a victim impact statement in which she said she was unable to work for six months following the crime due to mental health issues. She was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and became afraid of the dark. She suffered flashbacks and saw a psychologist.

The senior law officer said: “This had a very serious impact on the wellbeing of this young woman.”

Defence solicitor advocate Iain McSporran KC argued that the sentence imposed on MacGregor fell within the range that a judge could consider as reasonably appropriate and was not unduly lenient.

He said it met the requirements for punishment and deterrence in a case where the offender has no criminal background and had led a pro-social life.

Army captain MacGregor, 30, had denied raping the woman at a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh earlier this year and maintained that sex was consensual and that he had a reasonable belief in consent.

But a majority of the jury found MacGregor, whose domicile of citation was given as a parachute engineer regiment in Suffolk, guilty of the crime.

He was convicted of pushing the 28-year-old woman onto a bed at an address in Edinburgh, kissing her body, seizing her wrists, restraining her, repeatedly grabbing her breasts, removing her clothing and underwear, carrying out sex acts on her and raping her on December 14 in 2021.

During the trial MacGregor told the jury that he believed the woman, who he met through the dating app Hinge, was consenting and said: “At no point in the evening did she say ‘no’ or ‘stop’.”

He said he was “pretty horrified” and “shocked” when he later saw pictures of bruising on her breasts and told the court that he did not mean to hurt her.

The woman said she told him that she did not want sex to happen but was pushed on to a bed and subjected to the sex assault.

MacGregor, a first offender, said he was never in trouble before or since the incident and that he was in the Officer Training Corps at St Andrews University where he studied philosophy before going through the Army officer selection course.

The court heard he served his country in the military in the UK and abroad and had an exemplary record.

The trial judge told him at a sentencing hearing in February that a prison sentence was the only appropriate disposal given the serious nature of the offence.

Judge Alison Stirling said: “You expect to be discharged from the Army as a result of your conviction.”

MacGregor followed the proceedings in the appeal court hearing the Crown appeal against his sentence by a TV link to prison.

Lord Beckett said the judges would take time to carefully consider submissions in the case and give a decision at a later date.