Serial rapist preyed on underage girls and women during island crime spree in Orkney

A serial sex attacker who preyed on adult women and underage girls during a campaign of abuse and rape has been jailed for 15 years.

Stuart Harding committed sex crimes against three women and two children at locations in Orkney.

The 35-year-old of Birsay, Orkney, denied a series of charges during an earlier trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was found guilty of 12 offences, including five or rape and two of attempted rape on unanimous verdicts by a jury.

A judge told him: “As you know you have been convicted of a series of serious sexual crimes. Three of your victims were adult women and two of them were young females.”

Lord Summers said that a background report prepared on him assessed him as a low risk of further general offending and a medium risk of sexual offending.

Defence solicitor advocate Iain McSporran KC told the court that Harding continues to deny the offences. He said: “He has expressed very strong views that he did not receive a fair trial. He very firmly believes he has suffered a miscarriage of justice.”

Harding began his offending in 2012 when he assaulted and raped a woman at a property in Kirkwall, in Orkney.

His repeated attacks on her began when she was asleep but, on occasions, would continue after she awoke.

The woman said she was very scared but Harding told her that it was caused by “a sleep condition” for which he had been to therapy.

He went on to rape a second woman in Orkney in the summer of 2015.

She said that what she suffered was “horrendous”.

Harding attacked the third adult woman in 2016 and raped her when she was asleep and intoxicated at an address in Kirkwall.

The predator also sexually assaulted and repeatedly tried to rape a 12-year-old schoolgirl at a car park near a beach in Orkney on an occasion between December 2015 and December the following year.

The girl told the court that Harding knew her age because she told him how old she was after they met through social media.

Harding also provided another girl, aged 15, with alcohol and had sex with the underage victim.

Advocate depute Catriona MacLeod told jurors during Harding’s trial that it was the Crown’s position that there was “clear and compelling evidence” of his guilt.

Harding, who followed the sentencing through a TV link to prison, was told that he will be placed on the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.