A high-risk sex offender who abducted a north-east papergirl and continued to carry out crimes inside prison was today given an indeterminate jail sentence – meaning he may never be freed.
James Murison, 60, was originally jailed in 2007 for abducting and attempting to rape the 14-year-old who he forced into his Huntly home.
He trussed up the child victim and assaulted her before police arrived to free her after neighbours heard her screams.
During his subsequent prison sentence, Murison paraded around naked in jail, indecently assaulted a woman officer and exposed himself in front of other female staff with a smirk on his face.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh today imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) on Murison, who was due to be released from jail in August this year.
Lord Harrower said that the OLR would take effect at the expiry of his current sentence and ordered that he serve a minimum term of 12 months.
The judge told him: “I must make it clear to you this does not mean you will be released automatically at the end of that period.”
Murison was told that any future release would depend on the view parole authorities took of the risk he posed to public safety.
A report prepared on the sex offender had concluded that he posed a high risk.
Still poses a significant risk to the public
Defence counsel David Moggach said that it had to be acknowledged that until “certain issues” were addressed the risk with Murison was significant.
He said: “Until such times that the risk can be dealt with or significantly managed it has got to be accepted on his part that the options are stark.”
The court heard that Murison wanted to go to the high-security psychiatric State Hospital at Carstairs. Mr Moggach added: “He seems to be fixated on achieving that.”
Murison’s latest convictions stem from a prosecution at Falkirk Sheriff Court which led a sheriff to sending his case to the High Court with its greater powers of sentencing.
He was convicted of threatening or abusive behaviour, sexual assault and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of others.
During 2020 he had walked around naked while in Glenochil prison, in Clackmannanshire, and refused to cover up. He walked up to a staff desk with his hands on his hips looking towards two women officers.
In February 2021 he lunged at a female member of staff and grabbed her vagina over her trousers. A colleague restrained him and he was later taken to the segregation unit.
He was later transferred to Saughton prison, in Edinburgh, but again walked around naked, refusing to cover up and started to touch himself in the direction of three female officers as he smirked at them.
The former painter was a first offender when he was jailed for eight years for the attack on the child in 2007, along with a further eight-year supervision period when he could be returned to prison for breaching licence conditions.