MAN JAILED FOR RAPING WOMAN AS HER CHILD SCREAMED IN KILBIRNIE
A MAN who tricked his way into a woman's home and raped her as her child screamed in the next room was jailed for nine years yesterday.Ewan Pollard, 23, continued his attack after his victim comforted her two-year-old daughter whom he had previously been a babysitter, the High Court at Kilmarnock heard.
Sentencing him, the judge, Lord Abernethy, told Pollard: ``You have pled guilty to an appalling crime, the effect of which upon your victim and her daughter was incalculable.'' The court heard that Pollard raped his victim in her Kilbirnie house after getting drunk.
Advocate-depute Michael O'Grady, prosecuting, told the court that the woman heard a noise at the front door at 1.45am on Sunday, February 25.
Wearing a nightshirt, she went to the door, recognised Pollard's voice, and let him in after he asked to use the toilet.
Mr O'Grady said: ``The accused then came downstairs and engaged her in conversation but she said that he should leave.'' Pollard asked to use the toilet again but when he returned he grabbed her while she screamed for help.
The victim struggled free, grabbed an ornament and smashed it over Pollard's head.
However, he seized her and wedged a chair against the door, trapping her in the room.
``Again she tried to scream and at this point the accused picked up a cushion and placed it over her face.
She managed to get this away but he continued with his attempt to have sex with her,'' Mr O'Grady said.
It was then that the rape took place.
``Meanwhile, the noise that all this produced woke her daughter upstairs, who was crying.'' The woman persuaded Pollard to allow her to comfort the child but he joined in helping to silence the girl.
``Then the accused again grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the back bedroom and into the front bedroom,'' Mr O'Grady said.
``He then forced the woman to remove her nightshirt and bra, turned her on to her stomach, and attempted an indecent act.
When Pollard tried to take his clothes off properly, the woman and child and fled the house.
As soon as she got out of the house and into the street, she began screaming, which was heard by a neighbours.
She ran to a neighbours' door and tried to get access.
As she was standing there, the accused ran out of the house.'' Pollard was arrested within hours.
At first, he denied the offence but then said sex took place with consent.
Defence counsel Ian Hamilton QC, said the accused, a former stonemason from Glossop, Derbyshire, had expressed remorse for his ``bizarre conduct''.
He had known his victim well.
