Man arrested over 1980s sex attacks days after BBC questions police

Four women have told a BBC investigation they were sexually assaulted or raped by the same man in the 1980s and 90s.

The alleged attacks took place in Dumfries over an 11-year period when the women were teenagers. One was just 15.

Days before the BBC was due to broadcast its documentary The Rapist In Our Town, police arrested a man over claims by two of the women in the programme.

The women had first gone to the police 20 years ago but prosecutors decided not to take the case to court.

The BBC Disclosure investigation, which began in April, uncovered new alleged victims in the case and features claims that police missed a crucial lead two decades ago.

The man, who the BBC are not naming for legal reasons, denies the allegations.

He says the claims had been previously "robustly investigated" and he was never prosecuted.

In 1989, Fiona was 18, living in Dumfries and working in a local bank.

One night, she'd been out with a friend in a club. They ended up in a taxi with a man her friend was seeing, and another man she didn't know.

"I didn't think that I was in any danger at that point," Fiona said.

She ended up in the stranger's home after her friend went with the other man to a house across the road.

"He made me a cup of tea and I asked him could he phone across to see when my friend was coming over," Fiona said.

"That's when everything changed.

"He started coming across to try to take my clothes off."

Fiona said: "He had me pinned down with one arm.

"I kept saying to him: 'No, no, no'. But he didn't stop.

"And then once he had raped me, he said to me: 'I suppose you'll say I've raped you now'."

Fiona said the man raped her again the next morning.

"My next recollection was getting back to my house, taking a deep breath - I'm safe now," she said.

Five years earlier in 1984, 18 year-old Fee was working in a Dumfries bar the same man used to frequent.

She said she had gone upstairs one night to lock up and been followed by the man.

Fee said: "He knew that there'd be nobody up there. He was prowling."

She said the man attacked her and pinned her to the ground.

"He started kissing me," she said.

"I kept fighting with him and telling him to stop and he wouldn't."

Fee said the man tried to rape her.

"And I thought, there's no way, you're not doing this to me," she said.

"I just fought and fought. I kneed him, punched him, kicked him, just so he would get off me."

Fee said the man then fled downstairs and out of the pub.

Neither Fee or Fiona, who didn't know each other, told anyone initially.

They say they feared they would not be believed.

Fee said: "I thought it's my word against his. I'll just forget it happened."

Within a few years, Fiona started telling people what she said had happened to her.

Then in 2005 she received a letter from the man's lawyers, threatening a defamation action if she didn't stop telling people he had raped her.

Fiona told the BBC: "It was probably the kick up the arse I needed to get the courage to go to the police."

The police had also heard about Fee's case and took a statement from her. The man was charged and a file sent to prosecutors in the procurator fiscal's office.

In 2007, the fiscal told the women the case would not proceed because of "insufficient evidence".

A review by another fiscal in 2010 seemed to close the door on the case, telling Fiona: "There is no realistic prospect of us being able to take any action at any time."

Fiona said she was devastated as she believed there were other alleged victims the police had missed.

In November last year she went back the police, who reopened the case.

She said she had since become frustrated at what seemed like a lack of progress, especially around leads she felt were important.

The BBC started to investigate the case in April this year. Soon, a third woman had come forward.

Caroline told the BBC about an alleged sexual assault carried out by the same man in about 1982.

She said she had been using a phone booth when the man, who was known to her, came in and closed the door behind him.

Caroline, who was about 18 or 19 at the time, said: "He literally had got me up against the wall.

"Before I knew it he grabbed my breasts and I sort of pushed him and went: 'What are you doing? Get out!'."

Like Fee and Fiona, Caroline didn't report it.

"Maybe I thought folk wouldn't believe me," she said.

Fiona says she gave the police a lead about another alleged victim in 2005.

She says she provided the same details in November last year when she went back to the police.

The BBC tracked the woman down.

Now 48, she says she has never been contacted by the police about the case.

The woman says she was raped by the same man in 1993, when she was aged 15.

She kept her alleged attack secret for 32 years, and tells her story for the first time in BBC Disclosure's The Rapist In Our Town.

She said: "I've come to realise it's not my fault. I didn't do anything wrong."

The woman said she would have cooperated with police if they had asked her 20 years ago - and that she is still prepared to do so.

"If I can help put him where he belongs, yeah, I want to help do that," she said.

Fiona told the BBC she was angry "because this could have been sorted 20 years ago".

A few days after the BBC put questions about their handling of the case to the police, they arrested the man.

Through his lawyer, the man denied any allegations of criminality and said claims in 2005 were robustly investigated by police at the time, and he was never prosecuted.

He also denied raping the 15-year-old, and told the BBC: "I was never with her."

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "A 66-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with a report of sexual offences committed between 1984 and 1989 in the Dumfries area."

They added that he would appear at Dumfries Sheriff Court in due course and a report would be sent to the fiscal.

A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: "Sexual offence cases are often challenging and we are committed to continually improving how we investigate and prosecute them, and how we communicate with victims.

"We recognise the profound impact sexual offending has and would urge anyone affected to report it regardless of how long ago it took place."