A rapist and child molester was jailed for seven years yesterday after “justice caught up with him”.
A woman in the public gallery at the High Court in Edinburgh shouted “I hope you rot in hell” as Robert Douglas was led away to start his sentence.
The 57-year-old preyed on children and subjected a woman to a lengthy ordeal of abuse at houses in Aberdeen.
A jury found him guilty of assaulting a girl when she was aged 12 or 13 with intent to rape her at a property in the city.
He asked the youngster for sex and ignored her when she refused.
She was forced to the ground and held down as he tried to kiss her and attempted to pull down her pants during the attack, which happened between 1973 and 1975.
Douglas, formerly of Bramble Brae in Aberdeen, was also convicted of violently assaulting and raping a woman at different addresses in the city between 1974 and 1981.
He threatened her with violence and demanded she have sex with him.
The woman was punched in the face, kicked on the body and forced to the ground.
He also seized hold of her hair and threw her on a bed. She was also forced to sit in a bath of cold water for a prolonged period of time.
His last victim was a five-year-old girl who he molested in the early 1980s.
Judge Edward Bowen QC told Douglas yesterday: “The fact of the matter is justice has now caught up with you.”
He said there was no question that anything other than a substantial custodial sentence could be imposed.
Douglas’s counsel, Neil Murray QC, told the court: “He is under no illusions about the gravity of the offences.”
Mr Murray said a background report had indicated that an appropriate way of dealing with the case might be a community-based disposal, but added that the court may consider that unrealistic in the circumstances.
Douglas was also put on the sex offenders register.