A Dundee teenager has had his name added to the sex offenders’ register after being been convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl in a public park.
Kevin Reid, 18, had denied forcing the girl into a sex act under a tree in South Road Park on November 17 last year.
A jury at the High Court at Livingston returned a majority verdict finding him guilty of the offence as charged – but cleared him of three further rapes and two sexual assaults involving three other young girls by returning not proven verdicts.
Reid, currently a prisoner at Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution, had denied all the charges and lodged a special defence claiming one of his teenage accusers had consented to sex.
He claimed in evidence that the complainers had conspired to get him into trouble by lying, and read from a text message in which one of the girls threatened to “ruin” his life.
The jury heard evidence from the girl he was convicted of raping that she had been drinking heavily on the evening of the attack.
She said Reid repeatedly tried to hug her at a house party and told her things like: “Oh you’re so pretty. I want to sleep with you.”
After they parted company with other friends he started walking home with her, she said.
But at the park he led her under a tree and sexually assaulted her on the grass.
She told the court: “Kevin was complaining about his hands being cold
“He kept touching me on the leg and tried to roll on top of me.”
She said he put his hand down her trousers and asked to have sex with her, which she refused.
She said: “I tried to move his hand. I asked him to stop and he didn’t stop.
“I was scared.”
She gave evidence that Reid then held her by the back of her neck and forced her into a sex act before letting go.
She told the jury: “I was crying quite a lot. I spoke to someone as soon as I got in.”
Reid flatly denied being at the park with the girl.
However, DNA evidence from under the accused’s fingernails and a saliva swab from the girl’s neck where he had given her a “hickey” or love bite provided corroboration for the attack.
Judge Lady Poole told the first offender that she was going to adjourn the case and call for a criminal justice social work report into his background before passing sentence.
Reid will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on September 8.
