Sean Hogg: Midlothian rapist who walked free from court after attacking 13-year-old girl reportedly on the run

Dalkeith Country Park rapist was controversially spared jail earlier this year after sickening attack

A rapist who attacked a 13-year-old girl in a Midlothian park is wanted by police after failing to appear in court, reports claim.

Sean Hogg, 22, is accused of driving two cars without insurance. According to The Scottish Sun, he is alleged to have been caught behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Corsa in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, without a policy in place on March 2 this year.

It is claimed he was on bail from Edinburgh Sheriff Court at the time which had been granted in September 2019.

Sean Hogg, who raped a 13-year-old girl in Dalkeith Country Park, is reportedly wanted by police after failing to appear in court.

Prosecutors further allege Hogg was driving a Vauxhall Astra on March 12 in nearby Chapelhall without insurance.

Since the case was first called in June, a string of hearings have been held at Airdrie Justice of the Peace Court – but Hogg has never appeared in the dock, and, no lawyer has ever appeared on his behalf.

When the case was called again in court on Wednesday (August 8), a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Hogg was 17 when he attacked his young victim in Dalkeith Country Park on a number of occasions in 2018.

In April, he was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow to a community payback order of 270 hours of unpaid work after being found guilty.

Judge Lord Lake said if Hogg, then 21, had committed the crime when he was over 25, he would have given him a jail sentence of four or five years.

The sentence sparked outrage and calls to review sentencing guidelines which advises custodial sentences should be imposed only on those under the age of 25, if no other sentence is appropriate.

Rape Crisis Scotland said the sentence was “worryingly lenient”. And Harry Potter author JK Rowling claimed: "Young Scottish men are effectively being told 'first time's free'."

Hogg plans to appeal against his conviction but also faces a Crown appeal against the sentence imposed on him, on the grounds it was “unduly lenient”.