A moaning sexual predator from Tayside told a judge “lock me up, please” days before he was convicted of raping a teenager and abusing three under-age girls.
Richard Box made the bizarre request after turning up late for his trial at Livingston High Court for the second day in a row.
He complained he was having to get up at 5.30am each day to catch a bus from Arbroath to Dundee, then further buses to Edinburgh and Livingston before finally walking more than a mile to the court building.
Box voluntarily gave up what were his last few days of freedom because he was remanded in custody after a jury found him guilty of seven sexual offences.
The teenager, who had denied a total of eight sex crimes, will be sentenced at Dundee High Court on 19 December.
In addition to raping a 17-year-old, he was convicted of three counts of sexual activity with older children, aged 13 and 14a.
He sexually assaulted the 14-year-old and the 17-year-old and caused a 14-year-old to look at indecent images and induced her to send him intimate images of her body.
He was not guilty of a charge of sending sexually explicit messages to the 17-year-old.
Assaulted teen in Brechin
During his trial, Box, 19, claimed his victims had “invented” evidence he was a predator who targeted schoolgirls over social media for his own sexual gratification.
He denied sexually assaulting the 14-year-old in a public park in Brechin by seizing her breasts and buttocks after grabbing her by the neck and pinning her against a tree on July 6 2021.
The 17-year-old student he raped told how Box had chatted with her on SnapChat and sent her sexually graphic images of himself for a month before she met him for the first time.
The teenager, from Bathgate, admitted that in return she had sent the accused “kind of sexual” photos.
“I felt like I shouldn’t have,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have felt pressured into doing it. I should have said no.”
Princes Street Gardens rape
She said Box messaged her on August 27 2022 when she was in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh with friends.
He asked if he could join them and got the train from Arbroath.
After becoming tipsy, she said she needed to go to the toilet in Waverley Station and he asked to “chum” her.
However, she said he grabbed her hand, pulled her into the bushes dropped his shorts and underwear to his knees and asked her to perform a sex act on him.
She said she initially agreed after he told her it would be fun but did not like it and tried to push him away.
She said he did not stop despite her protests and kept pushing her head towards him.
She told the jury: “I was really shocked.
“I was stunned. I told him I didn’t want to do this maybe three times or something.”
She said Box then pressed himself against her back, pulled down her leggings and tried to rape her, hurting her in the process.
When she got away from him, one of her friends told her he had “seen Richard’s butt” through the bush and asked her if they had done anything or had sexual intercourse. She said no.
She added: “Richard came out a couple of minutes after me It was quite awkward.
“He was wanting to be near me, like cuddle me and give me a hug and kisses.
“I didn’t want to. I was shocked.
“I didn’t know what was going on. My mind was all over the place.
“My emotions were depressed. I didn’t know what to do.”
She said Box later got on the train to Bathgate with her and her friends and offered to walk her home through a park.
They sat on a bench and he again asked for sex, pulled down her top, sexually assaulting her again and performed a sex act in front of her.
On Register immediately
Judge Lord Lake added Box’s name to the Sex Offenders Register with immediate effect and told him Scottish Ministers would be notified of his conviction under laws to protect vulnerable groups.
He told the accused: “These are serious charges which in all likelihood will require a custodial penalty to be imposed.
“However, as you have no previous convictions and haven’t been in prison previously,
“I’ll require a background report.”
Box showed no emotion as he was handcuffed and led to the cells.
Despite being described as a first offender, Box was convicted in March of booting a teenager in the face as he lay on the pavement in a vicious assault in Perth in June 2021.
He was fined.
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