A father who subjected a vulnerable teenage girl to a horrific rape ordeal along with his son has been jailed for nine years.
Hugh Mullen, 41, and Cameron Mullen, 21, committed multiple rapes against the 16-year-old victim who was intoxicated with drink at the time.
A judge told Mullen Snr at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Rape is always a serious crime with devastating consequences for the victim.”
Lord Lake added: “Your victim was young and clearly vulnerable. She was drunk, very drunk, and unable to look after herself. You took advantage of that.”
The judge pointed out that the teenager was raped multiple times and added: “It would have been a terrifying ordeal.”
He said that a victim impact statement showed that the consequences of the crime “are continuing and are significant”.
The judge said Mullen has shown no remorse.
Incapable of consenting
Mullen and his son both denied raping he girl during an earlier trial but were found guilty of carrying out the sex attack on her at a house in Blairgowrie on April 11 2023.
They took the girl to the address after meeting her in Perth city centre and took off her lower clothing and underwear and grabbed her by the body and hair as she was subjected to repeated rape while she was intoxicated and incapable of giving or withholding consent.
The father was also found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice on April 12 in 2023 at police headquarters in Dundee when he spat on a camera, repeatedly wiped his penis and damaged a toilet.
The teenager said in evidence that she was socialising with friends and drinking before the attack on her.
She said she could remember being on a bus before being taken to a house in Blairgowrie.
Speaking about the journey she said: “The driver asked if I was alright. The younger one said ‘she’s my sister’. They helped me off the bus.”
She said that after they arrived at the property: “The younger one took me upstairs – he had his arms around me. The older one was behind me.”
Denials
The woman, who cannot be identified, said that she passed out in the moments before she realised that she was being sexually assaulted.
She said: “When I came to, the older one was on top of me. I was on my back. He was having sex with me.”
Mullen Snr told the court that the sexual assault allegations levelled at him were “total lies.”
He said: “None of that happened. I was in the living room. They were upstairs.”
He denied that he earlier induced the girl away from her friends by offering her free cannabis and held her up along with his son on the way to the house where the attack took place.
He said the girl managed to get off the bus on her own and added: “She was arm in arm with my son.”
He also denied encouraging his son to have sex with her.
Defence counsel Mark Stewart KC said Mullen continued to deny committing the rape and added: “I accept this is a very serious offence.”
He acknowledged that Mullen senior has “a significant criminal record”, which includes theft and serious assault charges, but not previous sexual offending.
The father, a prisoner in Perth, was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely following his sentencing. His son, who was on remand at Polmont young offenders’ institution, will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow next month.
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