Police inspector guilty of rapes

Adam Carruthers was found guilty of raping two women

A senior officer with Dumfries and Galloway Police has been found guilty of raping two women.

Inspector Adam Carruthers, 38, carried out the attacks on the women in their homes while a serving sergeant based at Langholm police station.

He will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on 6 June.

Carruthers brutally raped one of his victims, known only as Mrs X, several times while on police duty including one occasion shortly after she attempted to commit suicide because of the abuse.

The trial took place at the High Court in Glasgow

He overpowered his second victim Mrs Y in her artist's studio and raped her on the floor as she cried out in pain.

The assaults took place between 1993 and 1996.

At the High Court in Glasgow a jury of eight men and seven women took two hours to convict father-of-two Carruthers of the rapes and other charges of indecent assault against the two women.

He was also convicted of threatening Mrs Y in a telephone call during an internal police investigation into the allegations.

Carruthers, from Penpont in Dumfries, showed no emotion as he was led away to the cells to await sentence.

Deferred sentence

Margaret, his wife of 17 years who gave evidence in his defence, left the court complex in tears after hearing the verdict.

Lord Dawson, who presided over the five-day trial, deferred sentence for reports until June 6 and Carruthers was remanded in custody.

Carruthers was cleared of indecently assaulting Mrs X on a bus while her husband and his wife Margaret, 37, sat nearby.

A charge of indecently assaulting a third woman, now aged 60, with his police baton was found not proven.

The officer served with Dumfries and Galloway Police

The jury had heard that the attacks on Mrs Y began in June 1993 soon after she became friendly with Carruthers and his wife.

Mrs Y choked back tears as she recalled a string of incidents in which Carruthers made suggestive remarks and attempted to touch her culminating in a brutal rape at her home in October 1996.

She was working in her studio at her home when Carruthers called at the door.

Carruthers began studying the paintings taking a particular interest in a series of life drawings of a nude model.

Contemplating suicide

He then started urging her to take her clothes off before making a grab at her breasts and forcing her to the floor.

Mrs Y said the rape left her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and contemplating suicide.

It was only two years after the attack that she named Carruthers as her rapist.

Mrs X was first attacked after Carruthers went to her home to investigate a complaint against her neighbours.

Degrading

He started touching her on the sofa rather than asking questions about the complaint.

Nine months later Carruthers visited the house in his police uniform and forced her to have sex on the sofa.

The woman said: "It was really humiliating, it was the most degrading thing. I was shaking, shaking."

Carruthers raped her again after she attempted to commit suicide in a woodland near her home because of the repeated abuse.

Carruthers then arrived at the house to take a statement, asked her family to leave and raped her in her own bed.

She said: "I thought he was an animal."

At first neither woman gave full details of the attacks and stopped short of naming Carruthers because they feared they would not be believed.

After the hearing, Dumfries and Galloway Police said they would now consider disciplinary proceedings against Carruthers.