Dalkeith man raped woman after offer to do garden work

A Dalkeith man bombarded a woman with phone calls before raping her in her home after offering to do garden work.

The High Court in Edinburgh.

When John Gibson (47), formerly of Jean Armour Drive, was freed on bail following the sex attack, he then turned his attention to a second woman, who he targeted by posting notes through her door and loitering at her front gate.

The rape victim said Gibson had turned up at her home in Dalkeith and motioned towards her overgrown hedge.

The fifty-five-year-old woman said she had offered him £40 and he told her he would cut her hedge before going away but returned to ask for her phone number.

He later called her asking if he could come round with a bottle of wine.

She said she had been taken aback and added: “It just seemed really unusual.”

She went shopping but found that when she returned her phone was ringing constantly. She checked where the calls were coming from and found it was a number Gibson had given her.

The woman told the High Court in Edinburgh that she phoned her sister and her boyfriend about Gibson continually phoning and said she was concerned.

She said Gibson arrived at her home with two bottles of wine in a bag and told her he wanted to talk to her.

He went into her living room and asked her to get two glasses.

“I went into the kitchen and got a glass for him, but I didn’t want any of his wine,” she said.

She said Gibson sat down beside her and put his arm around her waist. “He said ‘you haven’t got the money, have you?’ which I thought he meant for cutting the hedge,” she said.

She said she was annoyed at him for saying it and did not answer, but then found herself under attack.

The woman said Gibson pushed her onto her back before beginning to unbutton her trousers.

She said: “I tried to fight him, to stop him doing that.”

The woman said she was thumping the sex attacker on the chest and slapping him and kept saying “no”, but he raped her.

“I think I screamed a few times. He told me to ‘shush’,” she told the court.

She said after the assault Gibson fell asleep and she ran to the toilet and locked herself in.

The woman phoned police and her emergency call was played to the court. In it she said: “I have just been raped. He is still here. I am locked in the bathroom.”

The woman explained that her attacker had invited himself to her house and was going to cut a hedge for her.

She said he started “coming on to her right away” and she was panicking before he raped her.

Following the attack on August 28 in 2015 Gibson appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court but was released on bail.

He then turned his attention to a second woman who became anxious and scared by his persistent interest in her.

After he turned up at her home in Dalkeith with a bottle of wine urging her to let him in, the 25-year-old said she pressed a panic alarm.

The woman used her mobile phone to record events and asked him what he wanted. Gibson offered to “share a glass of wine”, but the woman told him: “No thanks.”

Gibson had denied the raping the older woman and engaging in behaviour causing her fear and alarm on August 28 in 2015 and taking part in conduct that caused fear and alarm to the second victim between January and June last year while on bail.

He was convicted of the offences as well as shouting and swearing at police officers on June 3 last year.

Advocate depute Bruce Erroch told the court that Gibson was an NHS health care practitioner at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Gibson was placed on the sex offenders’ register and remanded in custody.

Judge Craig Scott QC called for a background report ahead of sentencing him next month.