Rapist jailed for seven years for sex attacks on two women

A rapist who carried out sex attacks on two vulnerable women was jailed for seven years on Wednesday.

James Arneil raped one victim after she had fallen and indicated that she wanted to be left alone.

A judge told Arneil at the High Court in Edinburgh: “In order to pursue your own sexual gratification you exploited the vulnerability of these women.”

Lord Harrower said Arneil, 37, had shown no insight into the gravity of his offending or its impact on victims.

Arneil, of Meadside Road, Kilbarchan, in Renfrewshire, had denied a string of charges at an earlier trial.

He was convicted of four offences – a sexual assault, an assault and two rapes.

The first attack occurred on an occasion between January 1 and March 31 in 2017 at a flat in Glasgow when he touched a woman’s breasts and molested her.

On February 20 the following year he assaulted the woman again in Kilbarchan by pushing her and grabbing her by the neck.

He carried out two rape attacks on a second victim.

The woman was first assaulted at an address in Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, on an occasion between October 1 and November 30 in 2017.

Arneil pulled down her lower clothing and lay on top of her and raped her. He raped her a second time at a house in Kilbarchan in May 2018 after exposing himself and restraining the victim.

Lord Harrower told Arneil that the crimes of sexual assault by penetration and rape were “very serious matters” and there was no alternative to the imposition of a custodial sentence.

The judge told the rapist that he would be placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

Defence counsel John McElroy said that Arneil had been assessed as posing a low risk of sexual re-offending.

He said: “His position remains broadly the same as that he took at trial, which is one of denial.”

He accepts: “As he must, the verdict of the jury but clearly still persists in this position,” he said.

Mr McElroy added: “Clearly there has been a difficulty with alcohol.”

Arneil, who is deaf, followed the sentencing proceedings from prison by a video link with the aid of a sign language translator who was in court.