Man found guilty of raping pregnant woman in Edinburgh maternity hospital 45 years ago

A man has been found guilty of raping a pregnant woman in a maternity hospital more than four decades ago.

Brian Thomson perpetrated a catalogue of abuse against women that spanned almost 30 years and began when he was aged just 12.

Thomson carried out the rape attack on the expectant mother at The Elsie Inglis Maternity Hospital, in the Abbeyhill area of Edinburgh, in June 1980.

During the assault on the victim, he made sexual remarks, struggled with her and subjected her to rape, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

The maternity hospital, named after the Scottish doctor, suffragette and campaigner, closed in 1988.

Thomson, 67, began carrying out sex crimes in February 1970 when he was 12 and targeted a younger girl for indecent assaults and rape over the next seven years.

During attacks on the child, who was five years younger than him, he would grab her, throw her, push her and molest her at houses and in the grounds of the former Edenhall Hospital in Musselburgh, in East Lothian.

Thomson went on to repeatedly rape the woman he attacked in the maternity hospital at addresses in East Lothian from 1980.

Thomson, of Edinburgh, denied three charges of rape during a trial but was found guilty of the three sex crimes committed between 1970 and 1999 by majority verdicts of the jury.

Following the verdicts, the court heard that Thomson, who was on bail during his trial, has one previous conviction for a minor offence from 20 years ago.

Judge Alison Stirling remanded Thomson in custody after he was found guilty of the offences and called for a background report to be prepared on him ahead of sentencing next month.

She told jurors that a jail sentence for him was inevitable and added: “It has been a difficult and anxious case for you.”

Thomson was placed on the sex offenders’ register.