Rapist who attacked teenage girls in Shetland and Aberdeen is jailed
- Published
Shaun Penders raped two underage girls
A rapist found guilty of sex attacks on teenage girls in Shetland and Aberdeen has been jailed for eight years.
Shaun Penders, 24, carried out his first assault on a girl outside a public hall in Shetland in 2015, when he was aged 16.
He then raped a 13-year-old in Shetland in 2019, then another girl, also 13, in Aberdeen city centre in 2022.
At the High Court in Livingston, a judge told Penders his crimes cast a long shadow over the victims.
Penders, from Lerwick, denied the charges but had been found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh.
His first victim said 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".
The girl went to a toilet and hid until Penders left.
She 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 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 2022, he met two girls who were aged 13 and 14.
'Significant aggravations'
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.
Judge Lord Lake told Penders: "The victim impact statements have made clear not only their suffering during your crimes, but the long shadow your actions have cast over their lives.
"There is some hope, now that the end of the trial process has been reached, that they'll be able to move on."
He said the fact that all Penders' victims had been young, vulnerable and in some cases intoxicated were "significant aggravations".
He added: "They were not in a position to look after themselves and you took advantage of that."
He said the gravity of the crimes and a previous conviction for sexual assault meant that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He imposed an extended sentence of 12 years comprising a punishment part of eight years followed by an extended period of four years on licence in the community.
He told Penders that his name would remain on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
- Published12 October 2023
