New Year party host jailed for raping guest

A New Year party host who raped a guest after urging her to 'have some fun' was jailed on Wednesday.

The trial took place at Edinburgh High Court.

Veselin Ivanov carried out the sex attack on the new mother after she had gone to a room at his home to sleep.

The woman awoke to find Ivanov on top of her and he touched her intimately.

She told him his girlfriend was next door but Ivanov said to her: “Come on, let’s have some fun.”

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the woman pushed him and told him to stop but he raped her.

Advocate depute Steven Borthwick said: “He ignored her physical rejection. He ignored her verbal rejection.”

Ivanov, 26, had denied raping the woman at his home in Salters Road, Wallyford, in East Lothian, on January 1 last year, but was found guilty by a jury after a trial.

The Bulgarian-born first offender had been on bail but following his conviction a judge rejected a defence move for that to continue and remanded him in custody ahead of sentencing next month.

Lord Burns told him: “In view of the seriousness of the offence of which you have been convicted I do not think it is appropriate to continue your bail.”

The 31-year-old victim told the court that she went to the party at Ivanov’s home with her partner while her baby was being looked after.

At one stage she had been keen to return home to see her child but her partner persuaded her to stay.

She was cold and tired and had not slept properly for days, and after drinking she went to bed and fell asleep.

The woman said that after the sex attack on her occurred, she was in shock and did not know at first whether it had actually happened or whether it was some sort of dream.

She left with her partner to return to their home and said she needed to think about whether to tell him about what had taken place. She said she was worried that he would kill Ivanov.

After the crying woman later revealed the attack to him he went to confront Ivanov and assaulted him, the court was told.

Ivanov had denied to a friend through a Facebook conversation that he had entered the room where the incident took place.

But he later claimed that he had gone into the bedroom to collect some amphetamine and the woman had asked him for a cuddle or hug and he got into bed with her.

Ivanov told his trial that he went in the room not to get drugs but to get shaving cream.

Mr Borthwick said that Ivanov had persisted in giving different accounts at different times to different people of the events of that morning.

Ivanov, who moved to Scotland in 2015, was placed on the sex offenders’ register.

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