A rapist who preyed on women working as prostitutes was jailed for nine years on Monday after evidence from a now dead victim was used to help convict him.
Kenneth Williamson, 33, abducted the two women after picking them up from streets in Dundee and Edinburgh and subjected them to terrifying ordeals.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told Williamson that his crimes were “predatory” offences committed against vulnerable victims.
Lord Turnbull said: “Each victim was subjected to a violent sexual assault involving abusive and humiliating conduct.”
Williamson first struck on January 5 last year after picking up a woman in Arbroath Road, Dundee, and went on to carry out a similar attack on the second woman who had been working in the Leith area of Edinburgh on April 6 or 7.
He had earlier denied assaulting and raping the two women but was found guilty of both offences after a jury heard statements from one of the victims, who has since died aged 36.
His first victim, aged 35, told the court it was only her second night on the streets when Williamson pulled up in his van.
She said she agreed to perform a sex act on him for £40 and got in the vehicle. She told advocate depute Graeme Jessop she was driven out of the city and raped in Williamson’s van.
The second victim, who is now dead, gave details of the attack on her to police at the time, saying Williamson had picked her up in Leith and had driven to Musselburgh, East Lothian, near to the race course.
She said Williamson raped her twice in the back of his van and that she feared for her life.
Williamson, a married father-of-three formerly of Dundee, accepted that he had picked up both women to have sex but claimed he fell out with them after refusing to pay them in full.
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