Serial sex attacker who threatened to share images of rape victim jailed

A rapist who threatened to share intimate photos of a woman during a catalogue of abuse and degradation has been jailed for ten years.

James Loftus perpetrated a series of sexual and violent crimes against three victims, two of whom were underage children when it began, but continued to deny committing the offences, a court heard.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told the 66-year-old that the jury at his earlier trial clearly rejected his attempts to portray himself as a victim.

Lord Sandison said that victim impact statements from two victims were “eloquent of the damage done” as a result of their treatment by Loftus.

Loftus, formerly of Balerno, Edinburgh, had earlier denied a string of charges but was convicted of 17 offences, including rape of a woman, sexual assault, indecent conduct, assault to danger of life, breach of the peace and threatening or abusive behaviour.

His serial criminality began in 1988 and continued for decades with offences being committed at addresses in Edinburgh.

The victim said Loftus had taken photos and video of her, some of which she described as “pornographic”.

She said: “He just told me he wanted to take some sexy photos of me.”

But she told the court: “I always feared he might use them against me.”

The woman told advocate depute Shanti Maguire that Loftus did threaten “to make sure everybody gets to see the photos and videos”.

She said he told her he would post them around her work and to others, leaving her feeling “really, really scared”.

“He said that he would use them against me. He would ruin my life by showing them to other people or get someone else to do it for him, so that it couldn’t be traced back to him,” she said.

The woman said that during violence Loftus pretended to stab with her knife and put it against her neck and said: “I am going to finish you.”

She told the court: “He just had a very evil smile on his face.”

Loftus kicked her, dragged her by the hair and throttled her.

She said: “I could feel I couldn’t breathe. It was really scary.”

The court heard that the victim was forced to crawl along the floor and kiss his feet.

Loftus was convicted of raping the woman and assaulting her to the danger of her life and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by threatening “to show sexually explicit photographs and videos of her to others and threaten to distribute same on the internet”.

Another victim, now aged 36, was subjected to physical and sexual abuse by Loftus as a child.

During it he exposed himself to her, compressed her neck and put a pillow over her face.

Defence counsel Edward Targowski QC, for Loftus, told the court: “It is quite clear in future a large amount of work will have to be done with him if he is going to change his behaviour.”

Loftus was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely following his sentencing.