Lifelong order for sex attacker

Sentence was passed at the High Court in Edinburgh

A sex attacker could serve a life sentence after a woman plunged from an East Lothian flat when she climbed out of a window in a bid to escape him.

A judge ruled that Alexander Gemmell, 46, posed a high level of risk to the safety of the public if at liberty.

He had denied attacking the woman on 1 November 2007 with intent to rape her.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Brodie imposed a lifelong restriction order while jailing Gemmell for four years and three months.

Under the order Gemmell will serve a minimum period in prison, but will only then be released if the parole board consider it safe and he will remain under supervision.

He just totally changed as if I owed him something Victim

Gemmell carried out his sex attack on a 47-year-old woman at her home in an East Lothian village after she met him at a bus stop in Edinburgh's Princes Street.

The waitress had travelled into Edinburgh to meet a friend before going on to bars alone to listen to folk music.

She went to catch a night bus to her home near Musselburgh, but was approached by a complete stranger who persisted in striking up a conversation, which caused her not to flag her bus down in time and it went past the stop.

The man offered to pay for a taxi.

She said she "kind of felt sorry for him" as he said he stayed in a hostel.

The woman told Gemmell's trial: "I had made it quite clear you can come back and I will give you somewhere to sleep, but that is it. I wanted to go to my bed, I was so tired."

When they arrived at her first floor home she got him a duvet and pillow to sleep on the couch but Gemmell's mood altered.

Lost footing

The woman said: "He just said 'Look I paid for you for that taxi'. He just totally changed as if I owed him something. I said I was offering you somewhere to sleep, that's all I am offering."

"I was resisting and doing everything I could to resist him getting me onto the bed. I was trying to push him off," she said.

The woman said: "I thought I was going to die. I just didn't know what was coming next. He was telling me I had to do what he said."

The victim said she had to go to the toilet and once in the bathroom decided to try and escape by getting out the window. She locked the door, ran the tap.

She lost her footing while trying to climb out of the window and fell to the ground.

The woman was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where she was found to have suffered a spinal injury and a fractured ankle.

Forensic psychologist Stephen Evans told the court he regarded Gemmell as posing a high risk of further sexual offending and that he showed a number of characteristics consistent with being a psychopath.