STV NewsA rapist who attacked a teenager when she was too drunk to consent to sex has been jailed for five years.
Neil Davidson had claimed he had resisted his victim’s advances and told her they couldn’t have intercourse as he never had a condom.
But the 26-year-old was found guilty of raping the 19-year-old at a flat in Musselburgh, East Lothian, in 2019.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the teen later sent him a message in which she called him “a sleazy b*****d” and said he had seen the condition she was in.
Davidson, of Edinburgh, had denied the rape, but was found guilty of the offence after an earlier trial.
A judge said he was convicted of having sex with a young woman when she was so drunk that she could not consent.
Lady Carmichael said that the crime was so serious that there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.
The judge told him during sentencing on Friday: “I regard you as someone of reasonable maturity both now and at the time of the offending.”
The teenager told how she woke up in the flat naked and feeling sore, shocked and confused.
She said: “I just didn’t understand how that happened.”
The previous evening she went to a bar in Edinburgh where she was drinking double vodka and cokes before going on to a club in the city with others.
She said: “I was feeling quite drunk when we were arriving at the nightclub.”
The woman said she remembered being sick in the toilets, and added: “I had drunk too much.”
She recalled being taken into the flat and had a limited recollection of her attacker being on top of her.
Davidson said that when he was leaving the club he was feeling tipsy, but was fully aware of his surroundings and everything that was going on.
He said the teenager’s speech was fine, and added: “I wouldn’t say she was stumbling.”
He said they got a taxi to the flat and the woman started to kiss him and climbed on top of him, but he stopped due to not having a condom.
Defence counsel Niall McCluskey said Davidson was a first offender who was 24 at the time of the crime.
Mr McCluskey said: “He is someone who does appear to be pro-social and a caring individual. This offence does appear to be out of character.”
Davidson was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
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