'Predator' who abused and raped young girls jailed for ten years

A man who preyed on young victims during a catalogue of abuse and rape has been jailed for ten years.

Michael McRobie subjected two teenagers to repeated assaults and sex crimes, including striking one girl with a whip.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, a judge told him: “It is a statement of the obvious to say that you have been convicted of the most appalling catalogue of offences.”

Judge Michael O’Grady KC said: “They amply demonstrate that you have a sinister, compulsive and deeply dangerous interest in children and adolescent girls.”

The judge told the 34-year-old: “It is clear that when you behaved as you did, you were neither stupid nor unthinking nor caught up in the moment.

“It is clear that you are and were intelligent and articulate. It is clear that you knew precisely what you were doing. Indeed, what you were doing was the product of cunning and manipulation and forethought.

“One of these girls was a child and the other little more. Both in their own way were vulnerable, something you knew only too well and exploited to the full. You are nothing more or less than a predator.”

Mr O’Grady said: “The damage you have done to these young women is incalculable and I have no doubt its shadow will hang over them for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever.”

The judge continued: “You will understand that all this requires to be reflected in the sentence I am about to impose. And that in turn inevitably means a significant sentence of imprisonment.

“This court also has to consider what danger you may pose upon release to women in general and young women and girls in particular.”

The judge said that the court had to consider what it can do in passing sentence on McRobie to address and reduce that risk.

Mr O’Grady ordered that he should be put under supervision in the community for a four year period after his ten year prison term when he can be returned to jail if he breaches licence conditions.

McRobie, formerly of Kirkcaldy, Fife, had denied a series of charges at an earlier trial but was convicted of 12 offences – including six of rape. All the crimes were committed in Fife and started in March 2016.

Over several months, he subjected his first victim to rape, restrained her and throttled her.

McRobie subjected a second girl to more prolonged abuse from a younger age. She was raped repeatedly and during the abuse was hit on the body with his hands and a whip.

He also sent the underage girl indecent pictures and got her to send him intimate images.

McRobie also possessed indecent images of children and extreme pornography involving animals.

Defence solicitor advocate Gordon Martin said McRobie had “a very difficult background”.

He told the court: “He is well aware he is going to be indefinitely on the sex offenders’ register.”

The judge made non harassment orders prohibiting McRobie from contacting or attempting to contact victims.