Clermiston rapist '˜attacked teen on her mum's wedding night'

A SEX attacker who raped a teenage schoolgirl on her mother's wedding night was jailed today.
The High Court in Edinburgh. Picture: Ian GeorgesonThe High Court in Edinburgh. Picture: Ian Georgeson
The High Court in Edinburgh. Picture: Ian Georgeson

David Briggs indecently assaulted the 15-year-old girl more than a decade ago and subjected a younger boy to abuse.

First offender Briggs, 29, broke down sobbing in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh after a jury convicted him of the rape and indecency offences which he had denied.

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The rape victim, now aged 26, told the court that the attack on her occurred after her mother had remarried and she had returned to sleep at a house in the Clermiston area of Edinburgh.

She said Briggs got into bed beside her although she did not want that to happen.

“At one point I remember pushing his shoulders to push him away while he was sort of leaning over me,” she said.

She told the court that she did not tell anyone about the attack and rape at the time and said: “I was just turned 15 and I thought if I tell anyone about this my life is over.” She said it would have ruined her mother’s wedding.

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She later contacted a children’s charity and police became involved. She said: “At no point did I want to tell anyone about what happened to me. I just wanted to make sure other people were safe.”

The woman said then decided to tell her mother in 2016 and wrote out a message headed “telling mum”.

In it she revealed that she was sexually abused and she had decided to report it and revealed who had perpetrated it.

The woman said: “She told me straight up ‘I believe you. What other reason would you have for saying this other than it must be true’.”

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Briggs, of Belmont Road, Westgate, in Kent, was found guilty of indecently assaulting her in October 2006 by carrying out sex acts on her and raping her.

He was also convicted of abusing a boy from the age of eight by carrying out sex acts on him at addresses in the Wester Hailes and Clermiston areas of Edinburgh and at a house in Millport on the isle of Cumbrae between January 2002 and 2006.

The trial judge Lord Woolman put Briggs on the sex offenders’ register and called for a background report on him ahead of sentencing.

The judge refused to allow him to continue on bail and remanded him in custody.

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