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sandmountainslim · Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 3:07 pm Post subject: Rapist/Policeman out on bail

Thought I would forward this along, Mr Stewart sounds like one fine piece of work, one disgusting individual indeed.
Deo Vindice
WP

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2230962005

Free to walk streets - the sexual predator PC who beat rape charges
JOHN ROBERTSON LAW CORRESPONDENT
A POLICEMAN was convicted yesterday of indecently assaulting two women, one with
his police baton, and molesting a teenage girl while on duty. But Dean Stewart,
35, was acquitted by a jury at the High Court in Glasgow of more serious
offences of rape and was allowed to remain on bail until he is sentenced next
month.

The guilty verdicts will mean an end to Stewart's career with Strathclyde
Police. His marriage is already over, and a jail sentence is almost inevitable.
Although convicted of only three of the original 13 charges he had faced, the
judge, Lord McEwan, said they were nonetheless "very serious".

One of the women Stewart was alleged to have raped attended court for the
verdicts. In tears, she said: "I am not able to describe how I am feeling just
now."

The jury of eight women and six men - one woman had been excused for personal
reasons - had deliberated over three days at the end of a ten-week trial. The 13
charges spanned the period between 1998 and 2004 when Stewart, from Paisley,
served in the force's U Division in Ayrshire. He was based at stations in
Kilbirnie, Saltcoats and Irvine.

The prosecution alleged that he had used his uniform, his power and authority as
the "perfect cover" to carry out a series of sexual offences against a total of
nine vulnerable women. Stewart denied all the charges, three of rape and ten of
indecent assault, and insisted that the incidents, with one exception, simply
had not happened.

In the exception, he maintained that the woman had invited him to have sex and
that, although married for only seven months to wife Gillian, also a serving
police officer, he "capitulated" in a "moment of weakness".

However, the jury held that Stewart had abused his status as a constable when he
abducted a young woman, a drug addict, by pretending there was a warrant out for
her arrest and inducing her to get into a police van. Stewart drove the victim
to a farm road near Beith, pulled down her trousers and assaulted her with his
side-handled police baton.

The second woman who was assaulted, a 30-year-old mother of two, had been at a
make-up party in a neighbour's house in Irvine, but she became heavily drunk and
started breaking furniture and the police had to be called.

Stewart and a colleague attended and the woman had slumped into a stupor. While
the colleague was out of the house, Stewart put his hand inside the woman's
trousers. She came to, and "freaked out".

The third victim, then a schoolgirl aged 15, had become known to Stewart when he
helped investigate her case which involved underage sex with a man in his 40s.
She alleged that Stewart raped her after being called to her home in Dalry
because she was drunk and fighting with her mother.

She said Stewart took her upstairs to her room to separate her from her mother
and pushed her on to the bed and had sex. The jury acquitted Stewart of raping
the girl, but wanted to convict him of a reduced charge of having underage sex
with her while she consented. However, the judge directed that he had to be
acquitted of the charge in any form.

The jury did find Stewart guilty, however, of using lewd and indecent behaviour
towards the girl on another occasion, by attempting to touch her intimately and
trying to have her place her hand on him.

In one of the other rape charges, it was alleged by a woman, 48, who had a
severe drink problem, that Stewart pretended to arrest her in the street in
Kilbirnie and drove her to "somewhere dark ... in countryside, trees and bushes
everywhere". She said he had sex with her on the front seat of the car.

The jury decided that Stewart was not guilty of raping the woman.

A not-guilty verdict was also returned on the charge of raping the woman, 27,
who attended the court yesterday. She had claimed that he came to her home in
Irvine about 7:30 on a Sunday morning, pushed her on to a settee and forced
himself on her. Stewart said in evidence that he had been in his car parked
outside the woman's flat, and she beckoned him in and then seduced him.

The last of the charges was the alleged rape of a woman in Irvine, on 29
February 2004. Like others, she had not reported the incident, and it was some
hours later when she was out walking her dog that she met her mother by chance.
Distressed, the woman was asked what had happened and, on being told of the
allegation, the mother took her straight to the local police station.

Stewart was suspended from duties and appeared in court a couple of days later
on the charge of raping the woman. The court hearing attracted publicity and
other women began to come forward. Yet more were discovered during the
snowballing police investigation.

During the ten-week trial, the case again received much publicity and a woman
attended the court building and asked for the Dean Stewart case. She was told
that the courtroom was closed to the public because sensitive evidence was being
led. However, there was a break in the proceedings and Stewart emerged into the
public foyer, to be seen by the woman. She turned ashen-faced and, in tears,
fled the building.

Because so many of the charges had only one witness - the women - for
corroboration the Crown had to rely on what is known in Scots law as the Moorov
doctrine. It is named after a Russian who ran a drapery business in Glasgow in
the 1920s and was convicted of assaulting a number of his female employees. The
doctrine allows separate crimes to be mutually corroborative when it can be
shown that they are part of a course of conduct, and the circumstances are
similar and not too distant in time.

In the Stewart case, the jury was told that the three rape charges could
corroborate each other, as could four charges where there were other forms of
assault, and also the six remaining charges.

Woman D: 'Arrested', driven to a country road and assaulted with a police baton

STEWART was convicted of taking woman D in a police van to a farm road where he
assaulted her with his police baton.

Yesterday she spoke to The Scotsman about her ordeal, which took place when she
was 18.

It had been a warm summer day and she was walking home following a visit to her
father's house. As she turned into the main street of the small west coast
country hamlet, a police van pulled up across the road and an officer she did
not recognise stepped out and summoned her over, saying there was a warrant for
her arrest.

Speaking from her home, the 24-year-old, who is still visibly shaken recalling
the six-year-old memories, said it was the "worst day" of her life.

"He locked me in the back of the van and said he was taking me to the police
station. I asked him why he was taking me the wrong way and he said he didn't
want anyone to see I was being lifted. I started really wondering what was going
on when he stopped the van along a farm road and came into the back where I was
sitting."

Stewart then told the woman he was going to assault her with his police
truncheon and removed her clothes before doing so.

"I felt really scared and kept hoping he would stop," she said. "He just kept
staring at me the whole time and was very calm - his face was emotionless."

Stewart then jumped back over into the seats and started driving. Woman D
demanded to be let out of the van before Stewart dumped her at the bottom of the
road.

"I felt so weird. I remember talking to myself and repeating, 'He shouldn't be
doing things like that'. I went home and sat in my room - I couldn't sleep. I
felt sick and just not right."

Two days later, Woman D found the courage to go to the police to report the
attack.

But Stewart was actually in the room while she was reporting the crime and she
said he convinced his fellow officers that she was making the assault up.

She confided in a few family members but continued living with the fear that
Stewart would strike again at any time.

Only when other victims of Stewart began coming forward and woman D's aunt
contacted the police again was her complaint investigated.

"I am just trying to get on with my life now but it is hard, he's a monster, an
evil monster," she said.

Girl F: 'He used his power to get what he wanted - he must have wanted to get
back at women somehow'

STEWART was convicted of molesting Girl F when she was 15.

He had won the trust of her family after being called to their home because of
worries over the teenager's relationship with an older neighbour.

After managing to help convict the 42-year-old man, who was placed on the sex
offenders' register for preying on their daughter, Stewart struck up a
friendship with the girl's family and often visited unannounced for cups of tea
and biscuits.

Soon he was being treated like a member of the family. However, the policeman
was to use his power to betray the family's trust in him when he abused and took
advantage of one of their four children.

Six years later Girl F, who is a mother-of-one, says it is only now as an adult
that she can fully realise the seriousness of what happened to her.

"I feel used and humiliated now. I don't know why he did it, he must have wanted
to get back at women for some reason. I feel abused and taken advantage of.

"I stop sleeping sometimes now when I think about it because it's now that I
realise what he has done. I will never forget. He is not a nice man and used his
power to get what he wanted.

"There are two voices in my head - one that says it was my fault and the other
which tells me he knew the law and knew I was so young.

"I have gone through so many feelings that I'm not sure how I feel, I'm numb to
it all. You hear about some nightmares people go through but you never think it
is going to happen to yourself."

Last year the woman finally broke down and told her mother what had happened
after hearing about other women Stewart had attacked.

Her mother immediately called the police. "When I went to the line-up parade my
legs just collapsed underneath me," said Woman F.

"He couldn't see me but it looked like he could through the mirror. He stuck out
like a sore thumb. He looked scary and held his head high.

"He is a disgusting, sad man who should be given the death penalty. He has a
sick mind.

"I don't blame the vetting by the police though, because they weren't to know
what was going on in his mind when they allowed him into the force, but I have
to admit I don't trust policemen now.

"I also push boyfriends away and I think it's because I have lost trust in men.

"The biggest part that bugs me about all of this is that he betrayed our trust.

"He was sleekit. He's a monster and looks like one, too."

Woman F is now trying to rebuild her life and is training to be a teacher but
she says she has spent years looking over her shoulder thinking he might prey on
her again.

"I am so angry that he got away with it for so long but I am getting on with my
life now, although it is always going to be there. I feel a survivor now rather
than a victim. There is so much badness in the world now that I really wish I
had been born 500 years ago."

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2230962005

_________________
William Potter
ScotWatch International
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scotwatch/
Jefferson Republican Party
http://jeffersonrepublicanparty.com
http://jeffersonrepublican.blogspot.com/

trueblue · Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:47 pm Post subject:

this is a bizarre decision. considering recenr events with accused sex offenders out on bail the public will be unhappy.
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azzuri · 'Our Scotland' Fossil Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 3777

problem is our jails are jam-packed full of people - there's probably no space for him.
_________________
"Every single person on this planet is unique. Just like everyone else..." - Random Guy in Edinburgh Pub

Possibly the funniest site in the world, 'The Daily Mash' - http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/

SLG · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:10 pm Post subject:

trueblue · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:17 pm Post subject:

someone is fined for an offence so as to try and keep them out of jail, fair enough. then you don't pay the fine, sorry, jail for you,you have had your chance. if they are not going to be reasonable/resposible about their offending behaviour and pay the fine then the next step has to be taken.
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SLG · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:38 pm Post subject:

azzuri · 'Our Scotland' Fossil Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 3777

excellent suggestion SLG.

Wink

_________________
"Every single person on this planet is unique. Just like everyone else..." - Random Guy in Edinburgh Pub

Possibly the funniest site in the world, 'The Daily Mash' - http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/

trueblue · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:55 pm Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:39 pm Post subject:

trueblue · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:00 pm Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:44 pm Post subject:

trueblue · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:01 pm Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:09 pm Post subject:

trueblue · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:27 pm Post subject:

SLG · Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:33 pm Post subject:

trueblue · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:24 am Post subject: