A man who abducted and raped a teenager in his Aberdeen flat could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Nathan Sim donned a black balaclava and pulled out an imitation handgun on his victim, who believed he was being given a place to sleep after he missed his bus home.
A jury of eight men and seven women took just over three hours to find Sim, 20, guilty of one charge of abduction and a second charge of rape following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen last August.
Today he appeared at the same court and was told by Judge Graham Buchanan that he would not be released from prison until experts deemed it safe.
The judge told the sex offender: “In light of the extreme nature of the crimes which you committed, your record offending, and the risk factors which have been identified, I’m satisfied that there is a likelihood that, if at liberty, you would seriously endanger the lives or physical or psychological wellbeing of members of the public at large.”
During the trial, jurors heard disturbing testimony from Sim’s victim, who said his attacker wore a black balaclava and beat him with the butt of the gun, which he believed to be real.
He stated that he repeatedly “begged” Sim to stop, but that his rapist seemed to “enjoy” watching him suffer.
“I didn’t know if I was getting out or not – I was really scared,” he told the jury.
Ordeal lasted six hours
“[Sim] said he wouldn’t let me out because he thought I would go to the police.”
The man said Sim filmed the assault on his mobile phone as he pleaded with him to stop, to which he replied: “I don’t care”.
“I felt at that point my whole manhood was ripped away from me,” the victim said.
He told jurors that Sim then sexually assaulted and orally raped him during a horrific ordeal that lasted more than six hours.
The man stated that Sim forced him into a shower on two occasions to wash his body and destroy any potential evidence of his crimes.
Judge Buchanan told Sim that this decision meant he would only ever be released into the community of the Parole Board for Scotland can be satisfied “that public safety will not be endangered” by releasing him.
‘It is possible that you may never be released’
“For the rest of your life you will be subject to continuing risk management and close supervision,” he said.
“The law requires me to set a minimum term of detention, this is no more than the minimum period which you must serve in custody before the parole board can in the future consider your case.
“I wish to stress that this is no more than a minimum period and it should not be thought by you or anyone that it in any sense reflects my view of when you should be released.
“Given the level of risk which you present to the public, it is possible that you may never be released.”
As well as imposing the life-long restriction order, Judge Buchanan sentenced Sim to a minimum sentence of four years before he could be considered for parole and placed him on the sex offenders register for life.