A convicted sex offender raped a 12-year-old girl while on bail awaiting sentence for child sex crimes.
Alexander Mitchell made contact with his victim through social media before going with her to a relative’s home in a Highland village where he had sex with the child.
Mitchell, 23, had been granted bail after a court appearance in Inverness – with a condition that he was not to be in the company of females under 16 – when he carried out the rape.
Police were alerted that a young female had climbed into the property through a window and officers arrived at the address.
Mitchell answered the door to them but police noticed that he appeared to be nervous.
Advocate depute Ian Wallace told the High Court in Edinburgh that he was pale, sweaty and fidgety but claimed that there was no one else in the house.
Officers spotted the girl lying in a bedroom – but at the time she maintained that they had just been talking and smoking cigarettes.
Officers saw a used condom lying on the floor and this later provided a DNA match with the girl.
And in March last year, the girl told a social worker what had really happened with Mitchell almost two years earlier.
She later said she had not told the truth about the incident in 2014 “as she was scared of getting into trouble”, Mr Wallace told the court.
Mitchell, formerly of addresses in Sutherland and Ross-shire, admitted raping the girl on June 15, 2014, at a house in a village near Invergordon when he appeared in court.
The prosecutor told the court that Mitchell, a labourer, had a number of previous convictions for sexual offences.
Sentence had been deferred on him following an earlier court appearance in May 2014 until July that year – but he committed the new crime in that period.
Lord Boyd of Duncansby deferred sentence on Mitchell, described as a prisoner in Inverness, until February for the preparation of a background report.
The judge placed Mitchell on the sex offenders register following his guilty plea to rape and remanded him in custody.
Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Douglas Ross said: “When someone is convicted of a serious crime, people are understandably perplexed as to why they’re allowed out on bail.
“One of jail’s key roles is to keep the public safe, and that’s clearly not happening while dangerous individuals who pose an obvious threat are able to continue to walk the streets while awaiting sentence.”