An Angus rapist serving time for attacking pregnant women during a catalogue of degradation and abuse of victims has failed in a bid to have his conviction quashed.
Mark Duthie, 33, preyed on seven women during a 15-year spree of offending in which victims were subjected to rape, assault and abduction.
He began committing crimes when he was aged 16 by kicking his first victim in the stomach while she was pregnant. He raped her at a house in Forfar in 2003.
In 2011, he raped another woman in Montrose.
Another pregnant victim was kicked in the groin in Brechin in 2009.
Grounds of appeal
Lawyers acting for Duthie argued he had been wrongly convicted. They believed the time between the attacks meant the incidents could not be used corroborate each other.
They told the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh legal rules surrounding corroboration required offences to be committed closer in time to each other.
However, judges Lord Carloway, Lady Dorrian, Lord Menzies, Lord Pentland and Lord Matthews rejected this.
In a written judgement issued on Wednesday, Lord Carloway ruled Duthie’s conviction was safe.
He wrote: “Although there was a significant time gap between the rapes involving the two complainers, there were sufficient similarities in the appellant’s actings… to enable the jury to draw the appropriate inference of a course of conduct persistently pursued by the appellant.
“The appeal is accordingly refused.”
‘Sustained course of abuse’
At proceedings last year, Lord Boyd told Duthie, formerly of Barry, victims had experienced long lasting emotional and psychological trauma.
He had been found guilty of a total of 28 charges committed between January 2003 and January 2018.
The judge said apart from raping two of the women, Duthie had also carried out “a sustained course of physical and psychological abuse” against victims over a long period of time.
Duthie was also told he would be kept under supervision and monitored for a further two years. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
He locked some of his victims in houses in Montrose and throttled women in attacks in the Angus area.
