A convicted killer and rapist from Fife who attacked a woman after being freed from a sexual offences order has been handed a life sentence.
Mohammed Akram, 64, subjected the victim to a horrific ordeal having already racked up a string of convictions for serious crimes stretching back more than 40 years.
Akram was locked up for five years in 1979 for the culpable homicide of a man behind a pub in Glenrothes.
In 2003, he was handed a seven-year sentence for the sexual assault of a teenage girl.
After being released he went on to be convicted in 2012 of abusing a four year-old girl.
An order for lifelong restriction (OLR) was imposed, effectively meaning he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
But the conviction was overturned after it was concluded the trial judge had misdirected jurors.
The young girl’s evidence was also considered unsafe due to her becoming distracted during her two-day stint as a witness.
However, Akram still remained the subject of a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).
Tough restrictions on his movements included him having to report to a police handler and his contact with women was curbed.
In 2017, the measures were lifted when Sheriff Nigel Morrison ruled there was not enough evidence Akram still posed a risk to the public, although he remained on the sex offenders register.
The decision to remove the SOPO was thought to be the first of its kind in Scotland.
Horrific offending
On Monday, Akram was sentenced for his latest crimes at the High Court in Glasgow.
Judge Gillian Wade KC imposed an OLR and ordered him to serve a minimum sentence of five years.
She said despite Akram having already served a number of jail terms there had been “no impact” on his “propensity” to re-offend.
Akram was convicted at the same court in February of repeatedly raping the woman between December 1 2010 and March 1 2022 – stretching to almost five years after the SOPO judgement.
The offences happened at a flat in Edinburgh’s Newhaven and a property in Glasgow’s Pollokshields.
He was further guilty of a separate charge of raping the same woman in the capital in March 2021 and of repeated assaults between January 1995 and December 2000 in Glasgow and Clackmannan.
Jurors heard she was not his only victim.
They also convicted him of raping a vulnerable girl at a flat in Stirling in January 1997.
Akram was also guilty of five charges against a third female – three rapes, attempted murder and indecent assault – committed between June 1999 and October 2001 at various locations across Scotland including Aberdeen and Stirling.
Akram had denied the accusations.
Bizarre evidence
In a series of bizarre claims in his evidence, Akram said the woman he abused even after the SOPO was removed remained “supportive” of him.
The physical violence included him headbutting and spitting on her, hurling plates of food and brandishing a knife.
The court heard if Akram did not get what he wanted, he “would go mental”.
Sexual contact was also “on his terms”.
Prosecutor Kath Harper said: “The Mohammed Akram described in this court is not one you recognise?”
He replied: “I thought I was fine.”
Akram insisted the woman had been “put under a lot pressure by the authorities”.
Miss Harper asked: “Police are making her say these things?”
He stated: “Possibly – a can of worms that I do not want to open.”
‘Minimum co-operation’ with reports
Akram insisted the account given by the girl he raped in 1997 was “100%” lies.
She has since passed away. He claimed she had initiated sexual contact.
The other victim – also younger than Akram – was repeatedly battered with a baton, glass bottle, hammer and dumbbell.
She was subjected to degrading sex attacks.
Akram again denied abusing this woman claiming to his KC Jim Keegan he treated her “like a flower”.
Sentencing, Judge Wade said Akram had shown “minimal co-operation” in a full risk assessment being carried out on him.
She added: “The author concludes – despite your advancing years, you having served lengthy sentences and undergone post-release supervision – that there has been no impact on your propensity to re-offend.
“He has therefore assessed you as presenting an unequivocal high risk.”
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