Man admits Hogmanay rape

The woman was raped while the party went on

A student was beaten up and raped on a rooftop as thousands of revellers partied at Glasgow's millennium celebrations a few hundred yards way, a court has heard.

The girl was taken up a flight of stairs to the flat roof on a Strathclyde University building and punched so severely that her face was almost unrecognisable.

Sean Murphy, prosecuting, told the High Court in Glasgow that a casualty registrar at the city's royal infimary, one of the busiest in Europe, had never seen such terrible bruising.

Edward McVeigh, 22, from Coatbridge, admitted assaulting and raping the Edinburgh University student in the early hours of 1 January.

Mr Murphy said that McVeigh and his friends and the victim and her friends had travelled seperately into the city centre for the party.

He said that coincidentally the victim and a friend, and McVeigh and one of his friends, met when they both became separated from their parties. They had all been drinking.

Phone thrown away

Shortly after midnight the victim and McVeigh kissed and cuddled each other to celebrate the new year, but it was all done in a good-natured and humoured way.

The girl and McVeigh who introduced himself as Eddie, paired off as did the other couple, and they went to the rooftop where she phoned one of her friends.

She remembered him taking her phone and throwing it over the rooftops and she recalled ending up on her back with him holding her wrists.

Stills were taken from CCTV film

Her next recollection was being visited by her mother a couple of hours later.

Mr Murphy said police investigating the rape studied surveillence videos from a nearby car park, the university and Glasgow's City Watch CCTV systems.

At 0345, a camera caught McVeigh emerging from the Collins Building area and walking towards the city centre. At 0522, the camera filmed his victim from the same direction.

Minutes later she was found by revellers in Montrose Street crawling on her hands and knees.

Forensic evidence

At first, they thought she had had too much to drink, but when they saw her badly swollen face, they quickly realised she had been assaulted.

Later that day, still photographs of the suspect taken from the security videos were circulated throughout Strathclyde Police area and a officer recognised McVeigh.

He was arrrested and forensic evidence linked him to the rape. Her blood was on his socks and a top and DNA found on swabs taken from the girl's body were linked to him.

Lord Carloway called for social inquiry reports on McVeigh before deciding on sentence and continued the case until 23 June.