Victim makes bid to stop rapist's move to open jail after Edinburgh Fringe attack

A woman who was raped by a former Downing Street aide while at the Edinburgh Fringe festival has launched a petition to prevent her attacker being moved to an open prison.

Mark Adams was jailed for seven years for raping the then 17-year-old, while he was 56, as she walked home after a night out at the festival in 2017.

The sentence, handed down in March 2019 was to be served consecutively with a seven-year sentence imposed upon Adams at Woolwich Crown Court in January the same year for raping another woman in 2015.

Adams formally worked in Downing Street under John Major and Tony Blair.

In an online petition, his most recent victim said she had been informed that Adams had been approved for a transfer from a high-security prison to an open jail.

Such a move, she said “would allow him escorted visits outside the prison, leading on to unescorted visits” before eventually being allowed “overnight home stays”.

The woman said: “Mark Adams has not yet served a single day in prison towards ‘my’ sentence.”

She added: “This man is a serial rapist who should not be allowed to move back into the community in any way, shape or form.

“I was a teenager when I was attacked. Mark Adams was 56. He is a danger to young women wherever he goes and should remain in a Category A prison.”

When he was sentenced for raping the teenager in Edinburgh, judge Lord Armstrong said Adams had taken advantage of a “vulnerable” young woman in a “calculating and manipulative manner” as she made her way home alone.

After the sentencing hearing, a Police Scotland spokesman said: “Adams is an arrogant man who preyed upon a woman as she walked home. He is a highly opportunistic offender who has no regard for those he attacks.”