Drug trafficker jailed for brutalising and sexually assaulting women who sought crack cocaine

A drug trafficker who brutalised and sexually assaulted vulnerable women who were using crack cocaine has been jailed for 10 and half years.

Giles Campbell preyed on his victims after they went to a flat in Edinburgh’s Earl Grey Street seeking the highly addictive drug.

Campbell, 49, whipped one 38-year-old woman with a cable and repeatedly punched her. He also threatened to rape the woman and tried to rape her.

He was freed on bail at Edinburgh Sheriff Court the following day, March 27 last year, and struck again within days subjecting a second woman, aged 37, to a rape ordeal in which she was repeatedly punched.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Pic: Ian Georgeson

Campbell, a prisoner in Edinburgh, admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug cocaine in the city, between March 26 and April 6 last year, during an earlier trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He had denied committing the sex attacks but was convicted by a jury of the attempted rape and rape assaults carried out on March 26 and April 7 last year.

The court heard that one of his attacks was partially recorded after a victim made a 999 call and left the line open allowing it to be traced.

One woman told the court that when she initially met Campbell she thought he was “a really nice guy” who was polite and well-mannered.

She bought £40 worth of crack and Campbell told her he was from London. But he went on to repeatedly punch the woman, grabbed her by the throat and seized her hair before forcing her into a sex act.

He also pushed the woman onto a bed and took off her lower clothes and raped her during the attack on April 7.

His first victim said that Campbell seemed to “home in on me” after she met him. He later got in touch with her and told her he had “some stuff”.

The woman took Campbell home to her flat and he brought out crack cocaine which they smoked. He then had rough sex with her.

But the mood changed and he told her the drugs were worth £360 and began demanding money from her. She asked him to leave but he refused.

Campbell grabbed her hair and told her to give him oral sex or he would force her to do it. She told him she would bite him. Campbell threatened the woman with a screwdriver during the attack at a flat in Edinburgh on March 26.

Campbell, who has a tattoo bearing his nickname Flashman, has previously been convicted of drugs and violence offences.

A judge told Campbell that he had played on the vulnerability of victims.

Lord Boyd said one disturbing aspect was that both women said they were punched repeatedly about the head while their assailant wore gloves or covered his hands.

The judge said it was clear that he wanted “to inflict pain” on the victims without leaving a mark.

The court heard that Campbell continued to maintain he was not guilty of the sex attacks and told a social worker preparing a report on him that that he considered he was wrongly convicted by “a kangaroo court”.

Lord Boyd told Campbell that he took into account that it was the first time that he had been convicted of sexual offences.

Campbell was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

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