Fife child rapist who watched victim be put into mental institution died after 'seizure' at Edinburgh's Saughton prison

A child rapist from Fife who saw one of his victims committed to a mental health institution after she reported his offending, died following a presumed seizure at Saughton prison.

David Scott inflicted sexual abuse on two girls in Glenrothes more than 30 years ago and a jury convicted him of five charges of abuse and rape in October 2018 following trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was jailed for 10 years the following month.

Scott’s first victim was just 11 years old when she complained about his abusive behaviour and she ended up in a unit for teenagers with mental health difficulties as a result.

David Scott was convicted of the historic sexual offences two years ago. Pic: Police Scotland

In order to be released from the unit, the girl had to take back her complaints against Scott and say sorry to her abuser.

At the time of sentencing, judge Lord Boyd of Duncansby condemned “the cruelty” involved in Scott “standing by and seeing a young girl committed to a mental institution.”

This week, a Fatal Accident Inquiry determination by sheriff Donald Corke emerged stating that Scott died in March last year at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary due to “complications of a presumed seizure” in someone who had epilepsy and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Circumstances

David Scott was jailed at the High Court in Edinburgh two years ago. Pic: Shutterstock

Agreed evidence submitted in a joint minute to the FAI revealed Scott, who was 66 and a prisoner at HMP Edinburgh (Saughton) at the time of his death, was found lying on the floor of his cell by his cellmate on the morning of February 24 last year.

According to the report, drawers had been opened, a bottle of fizzy juice was open and he had urinated on the floor and was lying asleep under a counter near some heating pipes.

Prison staff were called to the cell and woke him and a nurse was requested. He was found to be “cool to touch” with low oxygen saturation and his blood pressure could not be recorded “due to increased tremor” and he was left disoriented.

The report said: “He indicated that he may have suffered a seizure. An ambulance was called immediately.”

It was agreed in evidence that the night before he was taken to hospital, Scott had fallen onto his cell floor while attempting to stand up from a bunk bed and, although conscious, “appeared disorientated” but was helped into bed by his cellmate and went to sleep.

The report said Scott was taken to A&E at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where he was assessed and given an electrocardiogram (ECG) which confirmed he was suffering from an accelerated resting heart rate. This, together with a chest x-ray, gave a working diagnosis that he had suffered aspiration pneumonia and acute kidney injury resulting from his seizure.

He was given intravenous antibiotics and fluids in hospital but his condition continued to deteriorate in the following days and, on March 5, the consultant in charge formed the opinion he was dying and needed end of life care.

The Scottish Prison Service started an application for early release on compassionate grounds the next day but this was not granted by the time of his death on the evening of March 7.

The report said that Scott had been receiving two medications in prison to treat his epilepsy and that around 10 days before his hospital admission he had suffered an epileptic seizure in front of his cellmate.

Prison nursing staff were asked to review him and an appointment was made for his medication to be reviewed as it became clear he was no longer able to collect it from the prison’s medication hatch.

A decision was made for his medication to be administered as individual supervised doses within his cell. Daily notes on his condition were recorded by carers as part of a care package of support for his needs in prison such as washing and dressing.

A post-mortem was completed and causes of death listed primarily as “complications of a presumed seizure in a man with epilepsy” and secondarily as COPD.

The sheriff concluded: “It is clear from the pathologist’s report that he died as a consequence of complications of a presumed seizure in a man with epilepsy and COPD.

“On the basis of all the evidence before me at the inquiry, I consider that Mr Scott’s death was attributable solely to natural causes as accurately described on the death certificate.”

The sheriff determined that no findings were made as the death did not result from an accident and that no precautions could reasonably have been taken that might realistically have resulted in death being avoided.

Conviction

Scott began molesting his first victim at addresses and in a car in Glenrothes, in 1982, when she was aged 10. He carried out sex acts on the girl and later began to rape her until she was aged 14 in 1986.

He preyed on the second girl from when she was aged 14 at a house in the town and molested her on an occasion between July 1982 and July 1983 and went on to have sex with her when she was asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent.

Scott had denied the offending during his earlier trial.

Lord Boyd also said that both victims made accusations of sexual against Scott at the time but said the way their complaints were handled did not credit to those involved.

At the time of his sentencing on November 30, 2018, the judge said it was quite clear the children were nothing to him but sexual objects for his own gratification.

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