Convicted killer who raped two women after being freed given life sentence

A convicted killer who was freed and went on to abuse a number of women has been handed a life sentence.

Barry Pollock may never be released again after learning his fate at the High Court in Glasgow.

The 52-year-old had been found guilty last year of the repeated rape of two victims between 2011 and 2023 in the city.

Pollock had previously been jailed for five years in 2002 for the culpable homicide of a man.

He was then given the same sentence in 2014 for the serial physical abuse of two women, including battering one so hard with an iron that it broke.

Pollock stood trial for these latest crimes, which he had denied.

Lord Scott imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction and told the attacker that he would serve a minimum of seven years behind bars.

The court heard how the victims have been left badly traumatised after suffering at Pollock’s hands.

The latter explained: “I have felt stuck in this place since. Some days can be better than others, but it will take me a long time to go back to the person that I was.

“I just want to feel safe in my own skin and house again. I want to find my old self back.”

The earlier woman said she had “mixed emotions…sadness and anxiety” that Pollock abused another victim the way she suffered.

Lord Scott told Pollock: “She says that you made her feel like the villain for surviving your rape and abuse.

“She is crippled by PTSD and lives in a constant state of fear and anxiety, although she explains that she has now taken back the power you had over her.”

The judge had read two detailed risk assessments compiled on Pollock.

One concluded Pollock remained a “significant risk” of continuing to cause “serious harm” without long-term help.

The other described him as a “serious, persistent and versatile offender”.

He was capable of “sadistic” violence and that he appears to suffer from “psychopathic personality disorder”.

The judge remarked Pollock had committed all the offences against the women, having been freed from the culpable homicide prison stint.

Lord Scott said if he had been sentencing each charge separately and not imposing an OLR, the total jail term would have been 42 years.

But, he added, even with Pollock’s “appalling record” that would have been deemed “excessive”.

The judge warned Pollock that he will not automatically be freed at the end of the seven years.

It could be that he is never freed again, and it would be up to the Parole Board to decide.

A number of jurors – who had delivered the verdicts in Pollock’s trial last year – returned to court to see him sentenced.