A CONVICTED rapist was yesterday placed on probation for three years and electronically tagged after he admitted stalking a terrified teenager through Perth.

David McMillan appeared from custody after previously pleading guilty to following the 18-year-old through various streets on the night of January 16, shouting at her and running after her.

The 29-year-old—jailed in 1996 for the “appallingly evil” rape of a 73-year-old—admitted his actions placed the girl “in an extreme state of fear and alarm,” causing her to believe he intended to attack her.

At that stage, he claimed he mistook the girl for someone from whom he could get heroin.

He started following her at 11.20 pm in Canal Street, before pursuing along Ropemakers Close and South Street, across Queens Bridge and as far as her Dundee Road home.

By the time she reached home, she had broken into a run and phoned a friend to tell her she was being chased.

Unknown to her or her pursuer, the chase was tracked by CCTV operators who knew of McMillan’s past crimes.

A police car was summoned and McMillan was arrested outside his distraught victim’s home.

In 1996, McMillan was given a life sentence for the rape of the pensioner, in Oban.

On appeal, it was deemed “excessive” and reduced to nine years.

Yesterday, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said he had seriously considered sending McMillan back to prison for the stalking offence but noted he had already spent eight months on remand and any such sentence would be inappropriate.

Instead, he ordered McMillan to be electronically tagged and remain within his Carnegie Place home in Perth between 7 pm and 7 am every day for a year.

As conditions of his probation, he was ordered to undergo drug counselling and treatment, psychological treatment and to engage in any appropriate “relapse prevention plan.”