Richard Stewart found guilty of raping and sexual assaulting women in Dumfries and Galloway

A “violent” rapist who sexually assaulted a woman while she was having a miscarriage has been jailed after subjecting his vulnerable victims to a catalogue of brutality.

Richard Stewart repeatedly raped two women and throttled both of them during attacks, however the offending only came to light when he was seen attacking one of them in the street last year.

A judge told the 29-year-old: “You had no regard to the complainers’ feelings or welfare, ignoring pleas to stop.”

Lord Boyd of Duncansby said at the High Court in Edinburgh that Stewart had committed “forceful and often violent rapes against vulnerable young women”.

The court heard that Stewart, formerly of Dumfries, was assessed as posing a high risk of reoffending.

Lord Boyd imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) on Stewart, which ruled that he must serve a 40-month prison term before he can be eligible to seek release.

However, any decision on whether to allow him out of prison will be left to the parole authorities under the indeterminate sentence.

The judge said Stewart was an intelligent man, with a psychiatrist who prepared a report on him noting there was some hope for the future.

Stewart admitted seven charges of rape, one of sexual assault and a further offence of abusive behaviour committed between 2009 and last year.

The offences occurred in Dumfries, Annan and Lochmaben, in Dumfries and Galloway.

Stewart has previous convictions for sexual offences.

The first rape victim met Stewart when she was a teenager but he began subjecting her to painful attacks during which she struggled and screamed.

The court heard that she often cried during the ordeals and that Stewart told her to “shut up”. Afterwards he showed no concern for her and simply walked away.

In 2011 he carried out an attempted penetrative assault on the woman while she was in the process of miscarrying. Stewart was aware of the blood loss she was suffering.

The second woman who suffered an ordeal of rape and violence from Stewart was aged 18 when she met him. She was repeatedly punched by him and on one occasion attended hospital with concussion and received painkillers.

On another occasion he punched her on the head and body and told her: “See what happens when you make me angry.”

He threatened that he was going to kill her and twice put his hands around her neck and compressed it, leaving her with restricted breathing.

He told her she was “a stupid cow” and she lost consciousness as he choked her. The woman believed she was going to die during the assault.

Stewart raped the woman at a flat in Dumfries in 2019 while a workman was at the premises repairing a shower. She told him to stop but he continued and held her down by the wrists.

Stewart again raped the woman when she was pregnant in 2020 after throttling her. During the strangling she was unable to talk and breathe and she thought she was going to pass out.

During the subsequent sex attack on her she begged him to stop but he told her: “Oh well, just take it.”

Stewart was detained by police last year after they received a 999 call from a man who reported an assault on one of the victims.

Defence counsel Stephen Hughes said he recognised the case involved dreadful behaviour with two vulnerable females being subjected to “exceptionally cruel experiences”.

Stewart was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.