A sex attacker who raped two vulnerable men was jailed for eight years today after a judge branded him “a cruel and cynical sexual predator”.
Gavin Shand attacked his first victim at a house in Inverness after the man fell asleep before telling him when he awoke: “I know you wanted it”.
Shand, 45, carried out a second sex assault on another man in a tent on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow while the victim was under the influence of heroin.
A judge told Shand at the High Court in Edinburgh: “The circumstances of this case have amply demonstrated that you are a cruel and cynical sexual predator”.
Judge Michael O’Grady KC said: “You have a nose for a vulnerable victim and an eye for an opportunity.”
Sleeping Inverness man in his 60s was Shand’s first victim
The judge said that a background report prepared on him showed he accepted no responsibility and displayed no remorse or concern.
He said that Shand’s behaviour was “appalling” and ordered that he should be kept under supervision for a further four-year period, when he will be subject to licence in the community and can be returned to prison if he breaches its conditions.
Shand had previously denied a series of charges during an earlier trial at the High Court in Inverness.
He was convicted after a jury found him guilty of two rape charges, two further sex offences, and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
Shand attacked and raped his first victim, who was in his 60s, at an address in Inverness on an occasion between January and August 2022, when the man was sleeping and incapable of giving or withholding consent.
The victim told a carer, who visited him at his home, that he had woken to find Shand having sex with him.
He said Shand told him: “I know you wanted it.”
Shand also exposed himself when he was at the house and asked the victim to perform oral sex on him.
Second victim of Shand’s had passed out after being injected at a ‘junkie den’
The second victim met the sex offender in Glasgow in August 2022.
He said Shand was looking for a place to use drugs while he needed someone to help him get a fix.
The victim, who was in his 30s, said he thought he was “lucky” at the time of the chance encounter and offered to take him to a “junkie den”.
He said he passed out after being injected with the drug and came around to find Shand carrying out a sex act on him.
“I tried to push him back off me,” he told the court.
Shand carried out the sex attack and rape on the man at a tent on the south embankment of the River Clyde near Glasgow Sheriff Court.
The victim described how Shand offered him money and drugs to keep quiet about the sexual assault.
Defence counsel John Brannigan told the court that he thought custody was the inevitable disposal in the case and the judge said: “We can both agree on that”.
Mr Brannigan said Shand’s life was blighted by addiction issues but was assessed as suitable for an offender programme aimed at making changes.
Shand was also placed on the sex offenders register.
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