Christopher Pringle who raped woman as she looked for a bus home in Edinburgh handed jail sentence

A man who subjected a stranger to a rape ordeal as she was looking for a bus to take her home has been jailed for seven years.

Christopher Pringle carried out the attack on the woman in Edinburgh months after he was freed from a previous jail sentence.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the victim was in a public street seeking to get a bus when Pringle came across her.

A judge said: “She was unknown to you. You persuaded her to leave the street and go up a side street to a secluded area.”

Lord Ericht said that, once there, Pringle had “violently raped her”.

The judge told Pringle, 43, that a background report prepared on him ahead of sentencing assessed him as posing a medium risk of further sexual and violent offending.

Lord Ericht said: “You have no previous convictions for sexual offences but you have previously served a custodial sentence for domestic violence.”

Pringle had denied assaulting and raping the woman on August 20 in 2020 at Crown Street, in Edinburgh, but was found guilty of the offence.

Defence solicitor advocate Euan Gosney said Pringle continued to deny he committed the crime.

Mr Gosney said: “He appreciates that the only appropriate sentence is one of custody and it will require to be a significant sentence, standing the nature and gravity of the offence.”

Pringle was told that he will be on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely following his sentencing.