Serial sex attacker given life sentence
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A SERIAL sex attacker who drugged and assaulted a woman — defying a court ban on travelling to do so — was given a life sentence today.
But because it has taken so long to sentence danger man John Angus he could already ask the parole board to free him.
Angus has a record which includes an 11-year prison sentence for tying up and gagging a primary school head teacher in Easter Ross and abducting a school cleaner there, at knifepoint, in 1994, as well indecent assaults and robbery.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, judge Lord Brodie fixed the minimum time Angus must spend behind bars at 18 months.
He became eligible for parole last month because of time spent on remand, however, he can only be freed when the parole board decides he is no longer a danger and will then be supervised for the rest of his life.
In February 2010, a sheriff at Tain imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order in an attempt to keep the 58-year-old under supervision.
As part of the order, Angus was forbidden to leave the area where he was living without seeking permission from Northern Constabulary.
But just three months later he failed to notify them before hopping on a train to Aberdeen where his latest attack was committed.
Angus had been living in a flat in Inverness but just before the trip to Aberdeen he had been moved by social workers "for his own protection" to a hostel in Nairn after word got around that he was a paedophile.
A trial heard how, after arriving at a house in Aberdeen, Angus plied a 21-year-old woman with anti-depressant pills.
While she was asleep, or unconscious, he pulled down his trousers and pants and pulled up her clothing, exposing her breasts.
Angus denied assaulting the woman with intent to rape her on 5th May last year, but a jury found him guilty of a reduced charge of indecent assault.
Angus — who was beaten up by friends of his 21-year-old victim after the assault — admitted breaking the order imposed at Tain Sheriff Court. He was given a 22-month sentence for breaching the order, again backdated to last May when he was arrested.
