Man gets six years for rape in Motherwell

A rapist who was snared after his victim recorded his threats moments before the attack was jailed for six years today.
Aaron Beresford was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.Aaron Beresford was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.
Aaron Beresford was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.

Aaron Beresford pounced on the terrified woman at a house in Motherwell. He struck while the 27-year-old mum’s children were upstairs.

At the High Court in Glasgow judge Sean Murphy QC told Beresford: “You committed one of the most serious offences in criminal law.”

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Beresford (29) was found guilty of rape after trial, but continues to protest his innocence.

Defence counsel Paul Nelson said: “He will, with his dying breath, say he did not do this.”

A jury heard how the woman caught on her mobile phone Beresford making a number of vile remarks to her prior to the rape.

Beresford insisted he had been set up, claiming he knew about the recording as the victim had asked him to make the comments.

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He reacted hysterically after being convicted, shouting: “Rapists are disgusting. I hate them. I didn’t do any of this.”

He branded the woman a liar as he was led away to begin his sentence.

The court heard that Beresford and the woman had been known to each other. He turned up at her door on March 6 last year and demanded sex.

She said she recorded comments he made on her phone, but “not for one second” did she believe he would carry out the threats.

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However, Beresford did and the mum recalled trying to push him off. She said: “It did not work. I was telling him no.”

The bruised victim eventually got free and slapped her attacker. She later told her mother that she had been raped.

Beresford told the court he was aware of the recording as the woman had wanted him to do it – a claim branded “utterly ridiculous” by prosecutors.

In his closing speech to the jury, advocate depute Alan MacKay said: “His explanation is an insult to your collective intelligence.”

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