A serial rapist struck again after he was freed on bail for a string of sex abuse charges.
Edward Hunter, 42, preyed on a mother and her underage daughter on the same day in January. He had been given his freedom in May 2016 by sheriff while he awaited trial on other charges.
Last night, the serial predator, whose offences date back to 2003, was finally behind bars.
He was remanded in custody at the end of his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh and was warned he will be given a jail sentence.
He was found guilty of 10 offences of rape, sexual assault, indecency and assault, committed against four victims.
The court heard that in 2003, Hunter, from Carronshore, Falkirk, assaulted a woman at her home in a Stirlingshire village.
Within six years, he was sexually abusing his victim and raped her repeatedly from 2010 to 2012.
Unknown to the woman, in 2007 one of her young relatives also fell prey to Hunter. He sexually abused her then raped her after she turned 13.
Most Read
The child victim, now 22, told the trial she had been sleeping at her relative’s house when he came in and began touching her inappropriately.
She said: “I told him to stop a few times. One time he was saying it wouldn’t hurt. Another time he was telling me not to tell anybody.”
The woman added that by the time she was 13 or 14, Hunter was having sex with her.
Kath Harper, prosecuting, asked if Hunter asked if she wanted to have sex and she replied: “No.” Asked if he gave her any choice, she said: “No.”
The offences against the woman only came to light when she visited her relative who had been raped by Hunter and told her of the abuse.
She said: “We both got quite upset. I went to the bathroom and when I came back she told me she had phoned the police and they were on their way to talk to me.”
Hunter molested the mother and daughter when he stayed over at their home in Sauchie, Clackmannanshire.
Don’t miss
He assaulted the mother as she slept, then put his hand down her 15-year-old daughter’s pyjama bottoms.
After the mother found out about it, she confronted Hunter and said: “How could you touch the bairn?”
Hunter had remained on bail throughout his trial.
He had denied the charges, telling jurors: “I never touched any of them.
“I am not that sort of person. I don’t agree with it. It’s disgusting.”
Sandy Brindley, of Rape Crisis Scotland, said last night: “The safety of women and children must be the priority in any decisions about bail in these circumstances.”