A man abducted young women on first dates at his Perthshire home and an Edinburgh hotel after meeting them online.
Ross Hunter hid one victim’s shoes in a cupboard and snapped the front door handle at his house in Scone during an episode in which he repeatedly pushed her to the floor.
Around four months earlier he abducted and assaulted the other woman at a Premier Inn hotel room in the capital.
He had assaulted and followed two more women in Edinburgh city centre during a night out just three days earlier.
The 26-year-old, who had an online networking business for people seeking employment in the media sector, appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court this week after a jury previously found him guilty of six charges.
Sheriff Krista Johnston told Hunter: “You are entirely responsible for abusing, frightening, assaulting – and in two cases abducting – four different women, all of them strangers to you.
“You behaved in a sinister and in my view, clearly predatory fashion towards them.
“The harm caused was significant and will affect these young women’s lives and futures.”
Scone abduction
Hunter, of Croydon, South London, was previously convicted of abducting and assaulting a woman at his then-home in Pinedale Terrace, Scone, on March 27 2022.
The trial heard that the woman, who is not from Scotland, had gone to Hunter’s house for a date after meeting him on an online dating app and believing they were meeting at a café due to the name Scone.
She wanted to leave and made up an excuse but he stopped her.
He hid her shoe in a kitchen cupboard, concealed her bag in the living room and snapped off the front door handle.
A friend arrived after the woman sent her a live location on WhatsApp and she managed to escape with one shoe on.
Edinburgh hotel terror
Hunter was convicted of assaulting and abducting another woman at a Premier Inn hotel room in Edinburgh’s East Market Street on November 13 2021.
He was found to have turned off the lights to prevent her leaving and detained her against her will, seizing and pulling her hair.
The trial heard they were twice at the hotel together and also at a nightclub.
Hunter was convicted of assaulting two other women, both friends, and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards them in Edinburgh city centre on November 10 2021.
At Bell’s Wynd and elsewhere he seized one woman’s mobile phone and threw it to the ground, pushed her on the body and caused her to fall, to her injury.
At Tron Square he attempted to force his way past the other woman and struck her on the body, causing her to fall onto a set of stairs.
He repeatedly followed them and recorded them on his phone, acted in an aggressive manner, and seized and threw a mobile phone belonging to one of them.
The trial heard Hunter had been on a night out and had invited the two women back to his hotel.
Sentencing
Murray Macara KC, defending, said the women went willingly to Hunter’s home and the hotel, respectively.
He said Hunter met both online, the offences were not premeditated and matters were “reasonably amicable” for a “significant period of time” before “unwilful detention commenced”.
He pointed out the difference in public perception of “abduction” and the actual crime.
He passed on his client’s remorse to all women, which he said seemed “genuine” to both him and the social work report author.
Sheriff Johnston told Hunter she accepted the physical harm was limited and said she must account for his lack of significant criminal record and noted he committed the crimes while under 25 – “an age at which the law recognises you have a capacity for rehabilitation and reform”.
She said: “The law requires me to consider appropriate alternatives to imposing imprisonment upon you today.
“I do have concern you will continue to pose a risk to women you encounter so the question for me is how do I ensure their safety and punish you for what you did to the four victims from whom I heard?”
She imposed a six-month curfew order and 200 hours of unpaid work.
She also put him on offender supervision for 18 months, with a condition he engages in offence-focused work and intervention identified by his supervision officer.
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