Man who raped two women and sexually assaulted another jailed

A rapist who carried out sex attacks on a woman having been bailed over previous sexual assaults has been jailed for nine years and nine months.

Matthew Blair first struck on June 26, 2022, when he carried out a penetrative sex assault on a woman when she was incapable of consenting at a car parked at a hamlet in the Inverness area.

The 30-year-old attacked the woman again the following month at a house in Inverness, when he pulled down her lower clothing and subjected her to rape.

On October 29, 2022, he sexually assaulted another woman at a street in Inverness when he put a hand underneath her clothing and molested her.

He sexually assaulted a third victim on January 19, 2024, at another house in Inverness, when he touched her body and tried to take off her dress and lower clothing.

Blair pushed the woman onto a couch and lay on top of her, seized hold of her and lifted her onto his knee and repeatedly tried to kiss and touch her during the assault.

Two days later, he indecently assaulted and raped the woman in Inverness after repeatedly asking her to have sex with him. The woman was pushed onto an ottoman, molested and subjected to an oral rape.

Blair, a prisoner at Inverness, had been freed on bail at Inverness Sheriff Court a year before the last two attacks.

He denied committing the sex crimes but was convicted of carrying out the rapes and sexual assaults at an earlier trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The trial judge, Lord Duthie, ordered that he should be under supervision in the community for a further three years when he will be on licence and can be returned to jail if he breaches its conditions. Blair was placed on the sex offenders’ register.