A high-risk rapist from Perth who threatened to burn a trussed up victim during a catalogue of cruel and violent abuse against women has been given a life sentence.
Dane Lundie, 39, raped four people as he targeted vulnerable women for degrading treatment during a five-year crime spree.
Lundie had denied a series of charges during a trial last year but was found guilty of 12 offences of rape, assault, abduction and threatening behaviour involving the four victims, committed between January 2013 and June 2018.
Judge Fiona Tait said she was satisfied the criteria were met for imposing an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) because a report assessed him as posing a high risk to the public if granted his liberty.
The judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh it was an indeterminate sentence and ordered he must serve six years in prison before he becomes eligible even to apply for release.
Tied woman and threatened her with fire
Lundie has a record of offending dating back to 2001, including crimes of violence, and has been jailed previously.
His latest offences began when he was living at Collinson View in Perth.
One victim told his trial he used dressing gown ties to bind her, adding: “He said he was going to set my legs on fire.”
She said he held the flame of a lighter close to her legs during the ordeal.
Lundie also held a knife to her throat and she said: “I thought he was going to kill me.”
The woman told the court Lundie was “very, very aggressive” and “very controlling”.
She said she sustained a black eye and bruises during beatings and he grabbed and dragged her by the hair, which was torn out.
Lundie also subjected her to verbal abuse, threatened to kill her and made her sleep on the floor without bedding.
She said after he sexually assaulted her he was “laughing about it”.
She added: “I was just crying. I felt disgusted and sad.”
Supplied drugs
A second woman was also subjected to repeated sex attacks in Perth, which left her choking.
Lundie continued to offend against women after he moved to live in Mill Street, Kinross, where he targeted two further victims for abuse in 2018.
One woman was subjected to an invasive sexual assault by him after he decided to carry out a “drug search” in front of another victim of his abuse.
The witness later told police she remembered him doing “something disgusting” to the woman that she was “struggling to put into words”.
She said the woman who was subjected to the internal search was scared and asking him to stop but he did not.
She said Lundie did not find any drugs.
Spiked drink and dark web fears
One woman, aged 24, said Lundie was supplying her with heroin, valium, cocaine and crack cocaine and began raping her when she sleeping.
She said: “I would wake up sore”.
She told the court: “He was into weird stuff, like the dark web” and thought he was viewing “banned” sex videos.
She said she was scared of him and suspected he spiked hot drinks he gave her, as she felt drowsy and would go to sleep.
Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson urged the judge to deal with Lundie by imposing a set sentence of a period in custody followed by supervision in the community.
He pointed out English sentences similar to OLRs are no longer used as they were seen as “a sentence of no hope”.
He said: “It is quite clear he is suffering from depression and sees little hope for the future because of the process that has taken place since his conviction.”
Lundie was told he will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
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