Shetland rapist guilty of series of attacks on teenage girls
- Published
Despite a court order banning him from having contact with under 16s Shaun Penders went on to rape two underage girls
A rapist has been found guilty of a series of sex attacks on teenage girls in Shetland and Aberdeen.
Shaun Penders, 24, carried out his first assault on a girl outside a public hall in Shetland in 2015, when he was 16.
He then raped a 13-year-old in Shetland in 2019, then another girl, also aged 13, in Aberdeen city centre in 2022.
Penders, from Lerwick, denied the charges but was found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Lord Lake told him: "Your offending is abhorrent."
The judge said: "You have been found guilty of a number of extremely serious charges, in which it is apparent you have preyed on very young girls for your own sexual gratification."
Penders' first victim told the court that they had been at a party at a village hall in Shetland and he appeared "quite drunk".
She said that when they were outside "he started aggressively groping me".
'Abusing other girls'
The girl managed to get to a toilet and hid there until Penders left.
His victim said she did not give a statement to police until 2018 when she "found out he was doing the same thing, abusing other girls".
The 13-year-old girl who was raped by Penders in May 2019 said he had bought vodka which she was drinking.
He was convicted of raping her while she was intoxicated and drifting in and out of consciousness.
In the third incident, during a trip to Aberdeen in February 2022, he met two girls who were aged 13 and 14.
Penders was convicted of raping the 13-year-old girl while she was in an intoxicated state and drifting in and out of consciousness in a lane in the city.
He was subject to a sexual offences prevention order at the time which prohibited him from having contact with under-16s.
Penders was also found guilty of a further charge of indecently communicating with a child.
The judge deferred sentence until November 8 at the High Court in Livingston.
Penders was placed on the sex offenders' register.