Serial rapist Barry Mulholland who preyed on underage girls jailed for nine years

A high risk serial rapist who preyed on underage girls in a campaign of abuse has been jailed for nine years.

Barry Mulholland subjected five females to rape ordeals over two decades, with four of his victims aged under 16 including a child of 11.

A judge told Mulholland: “It is clear that your actions have had a profound and long standing impact on some of these young women.”

Lord Richardson said at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You have been found guilty of six charges of the rapes of five young women.”

“These convictions are as a result of what I can only describe as a result of a campaign of abuse carried out against these young women,” he said.

Lord Richardson said that the rapist continued to deny responsibility for the crimes and has shown no remorse.

He told the sex offender who followed the sentencing via a video link to Glasgow’s Barlinnie prison: “A lengthy period in custody is the only appropriate sentence I can pass on you to reflect your appalling conduct.”

The court heard that Mulholland of Urr Road, Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway, was assessed as posing a high risk of offending.

Lord Richardson ordered that he should also be under supervision for a further three-year period and told Mulholland that if he breached licence conditions during that time he could be returned to prison.

Mulholland had denied the offences but was found guilty of the sex crimes following an earlier trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Defence counsel Gary Allan QC told the court today: “He has maintained his innocence.”

He said Mulholland has previously served a prison sentence and that since his release from that his behaviour has given rise to no further police reports over his conduct.

Mulholland raped his first victim between August 1994 and August 1997 when she was aged 14 or 15 at a house in Bo’ness, in West Lothian.

During the attack, he removed her clothing and carried out sex acts on the child.

Mulholland then raped another teenager when she was aged 14 and under the influence of drink at a house in Moffat, in Dumfriesshire on an occasion between November 1997 and November the following year. Another girl was subjected to a rape when she was aged 15.

His youngest victim was attacked by him in a car at a location in Dumfries and Galloway on an occasion between December 2015 and December the following year.

Mulholland carried out solo sex act and sexually assaulted the 11-year-old in the vehicle.

His only adult victim was a woman who was raped at a house in Dumfries in 2017.

He was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.