Army veteran who raped West Lothian schoolgirl claims victim failed to spot his intimate tattoo

An Army veteran was jailed for six years today after raping an underage babysitter in front of his young son more than two decades ago.

Let us know what you think and join the conversation at the bottom of this article.

Former Royal Scots soldier William Whyte subjected the the teenager to the traumatic ordeal after repeatedly asking her for sex.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told Whyte: "You were convicted by the jury of raping the complainer when she was just 15 years of age."

Jailed: Rapist William Whyte

Lord Braid said that at the time of the attack the teenager had made it clear to Whyte, now 48, that she did not want to have sex with him.

The judge said: "She was crying and repeatedly said 'no' but nonetheless you went ahead and had sex with her without her consent."

Lord Braid said he accepted " that the effect of being raped in front of your son, which was her evidence, was traumatic in the extreme".

The judge said the age of the victim was an aggravating factor in the crime and pointed out that she had acted as a babysitter for Whyte.

Whyte, who served in Northern Ireland and the first Gulf war, was aged 23 when he carried out the sex attack at a house in Polbeth, in West Lothian.

He had denied assaulting and raping the victim between March 1 and May 31 in 1996 after repeatedly asking her to engage in sexual intercourse, instructing her to undress, seizing her by the body, placing her on top of him and pulling her underpants aside, but was convicted of the offence.

He claimed he was innocent because his victim didn’t know he had a bright red love heart tattoo on his penis.

Whyte admitted he had taken the teenager to the Bathgate Hills and had twice had sex with her in the back of his car when she was over 16.

But he denied raping her on the landing in front of young children in 1996.

The woman, now 40, told Whyte's trial that she was sobbing and crying throughout the ordeal and got up and ran out of his then home when it ended.

Whyte had previously told the underage girl how beautiful she was when he made flattering comments towards her.

She told his trial that she had "recovered memories" of the abuse after experiencing intense flashbacks.

Defence solicitor advocate Ewen Roy said that Whyte continued to maintain his innocence.

He said a background report prepared on Whyte said he had "a difficult and traumatic childhood" followed by an adult life blighted by mental health problems.

Mr Roy said he had a long history of anxiety and depression and went through a "disturbing and distressing" posting in Northern Ireland as a teenage soldier.

Whyte had previously served a 40-month prison sentence after being convicted in 2012 of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

Police officers seized half a kilo of cocaine, worth about £17,000, along with 14 kilos of benzocaine, which is commonly used to cut the Class A drug from his thome.

He was later jailed for a drugs offence at the High Court.

Whyte was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register indefinitely at today’s sentencing hearing, which he followed via a video link to prison.

Following proceedings, Detective Constable Lynn Morrison of the Non Recent Team at Livingston Public Protection Unit said :“Despite the passage of time, the victim managed to provide us with a statement which allowed us to carry out this investigation. Had it not been for her bravery in coming forward this crime could have gone un-punished.

“We continue to be committed to bringing all perpetrators of sexual abuse to justice. Time is no barrier for our enquiries. I would urge anyone who wishes to report sexual crime, regardless of when it happened, to contact us so we can conduct a thorough and professional investigation."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.