GARY LEWTAS

RAPIST JAILED FOR ATTACK ON SCHOOLGIRL

A MAN who raped a schoolgirl after luring her into a hotel toilet was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at the High Court in Perth yesterday.

Gary Lewtas, 26, a mechanic, of Woodhead, Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, was found guilty of inducing the 14-year-old to enter the men's toilet in the Victoria Hotel, Blairgowrie, and raping her.

Lewtas claimed that the girl, then a virgin, willingly had sex with him.

The girl was on holiday in Blairgowrie when she was attacked.

During her testimony, the Judge, Lord Milligan, and counsel removed their wigs and gowns, and the girl was allowed to sit in the well of the court with her back to Lewtas, but she was reduced to tears several times.

Lord Milligan, who said that she deserved immense credit for the way in which she managed to get through her evidence, told Lewtas that he had subjected her to an absolutely appalling experience.

He jailed him for seven years for that crime, with an additional 18 months for an offence against another schoolgirl.

In that case he admitted having unlawful intercourse with the girl, also a 14-year-old virgin, while she was living in his former home in Blairgowrie.

The girl became pregnant and later had an abortion.

Lewtas sat through the latter stages of the trial with his face badly marked and his left eye almost closed -- the result of an incident in which he was scalded with hot tea while on remand in Perth prison.