Rapist who abused girl from age five over two decades jailed for ten years

A high-risk child abuser and rapist who targeted a girl for abuse from the age of five has been jailed for ten years.

Brian Keenan repeatedly preyed on his child victim during a campaign of sexual exploitation of the girl, which ended with her being attacked and raped as an adult woman.

A judge told the 44-year-old: “Your offending was deliberate. It was shocking and sustained and the harm you have done is incalculable.”

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Keenan was assessed as posing a high risk, and Judge Thomas Welsh KC ordered that he should be under supervision in the community for a further three years, when he will be under licence and can be returned to prison if he breaches it.

The judge told Keenan: “You have been found guilty of very serious offences.”

Keenan, formerly of Kirkmuirhill, South Lanarkshire, had denied a series of charges during an earlier trial but was convicted of three offences – one of indecent conduct towards a child and two of sexual assault and rape.

The sex crimes occurred between 2004 and 2021 and took place at addresses in a South Lanarkshire town. and began when Keenan was aged 23.

During an assault on the victim in October 2021, Keenan pulled and dragged her by the hair, pushed her onto a sofa, pinned her hands above her head and raped her.

Following the guilty verdicts against him, sentence was deferred on Keenan until Friday for the preparation of a background report on him.

Defence counsel Gail Gianni told the judge: “You will see from the report that he does not accept responsibility for these offences. As a consequence of that, he has demonstrated no victim empathy.”

She said he has only one previous conviction for a minor road traffic offence.

She said: “He has experienced alcohol difficulties in recent years, with drinking to excess. He has undergone an alcohol detoxification programme in prison.”

“He is well aware that the only option in a case of such gravity is a substantial custodial sentence,” she said.

Keenan, who followed proceedings via a TV link to jail, was told he will be placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

The judge also made a non harassment order prohibiting Keenan from contacting or attempting to contact the victim for an indefinite period.