A violent Angus sex offender who raped a young mother a week after his release on a string of abuse charges has been given a 15-year extended sentence for his crimes.
Rick Davidson from Forfar will serve 10 years behind bars and will be subject to a further five years on licence after a High Court judge told the 48-year-old he represented a serious danger to women.
Davidson was convicted by a jury last month of nine charges involving the violent and/or sexual abuse of six victims over a period of more than 20 years.
His brutal behaviour included stubbing out a cigarette repeatedly on the body of one of his victims and the rape of the young mum, who told the court she had been struggling for funds for her daughter’s birthday and offered Davidson sex for money.
The 27-year-old told a trial at Edinburgh High Court that Davidson had said he did not pay for sex before slamming her head off the floor and raping her at his home on Forfar’s Lordburn Place on October 3 last year.
Over the duration of the 10-day trial, Davidson also denied a catalogue of other offences covering more than 20 years.
Jurors heard he had been freed twice at Forfar Sheriff Court on bail before the sex attack.
He was also found guilty of eight assault charges against four other women and a child .
Davidson was acquitted of trying to murder two women, one of whom was pregnant at the time, by attempting to push them out of third and fourth floor flat windows in Forfar.
His violence to women began in the mid-1990s when he attacked a victim at a flat in the Leith area of Edinburgh, hitting her on the chest with a lit cigarette.
The child was assaulted by Davidson between 2000 and 2002 at different places in Forfar. The youngster was thrown against railings, to the floor and into a bath of cold water.
Sentencing Davidson, Lord Arthurson said: “In and of themselves these crimes merit the imposition of a substantial period of imprisonment.
“Your criminal record discloses 21 groups of previous convictions, six of which have been marked as domestically aggravated, spanning the period 1990 to 2016.
“You present a high risk of sexual violence against female adults.
“The impact of your conduct upon your victims is assessed as severe, with a high risk of violence and of physical and sexual harm, with severe emotional trauma.”
The judge said authors of the sentencing report had highlighted “high levels of planning and manipulation” and noted that Davidson had elected to place significant blame upon the victims for his own behaviour.
Davidson’s name will be added to the Sex Offenders’ Register for an indefinite period.
