A child rapist from Fife who sexually abused two girls more than 30 years ago died hours before he was due to be released on compassionate grounds.
David Scott, 66, who was jailed for 10 years in 2018 after being convicted of five historic charges of sexual offences and rape, is thought to have suffered a seizure in his prison cell and died nearly two weeks later in hospital.
The outcome of a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) has now revealed paperwork allowing Scott to spend his dying days at home had been completed, but he did not survive to see freedom.
Scott’s first victim was just 11 when she complained about his abusive behaviour. She ended up in a unit for mentally disturbed teenagers after no-one believed her.
In order to be released from the unit, she was forced to take back her complaints against him and say sorry to her abuser.
A judge would later condemn Scott’s “cruelty” for standing by and seeing his young victim committed to a mental institution.
In a FAI determination this week, Sheriff Donald Corke concluded no precautions could reasonably have been taken that might realistically have resulted in Scott’s death in March last year being avoided.
“It is clear from the pathologist’s report that he died as a consequence of complications of a presumed seizure in a man with epilepsy and COPD,” the sheriff noted.
“On the basis of all the evidence before me at the inquiry, I consider that Mr Scott’s death was attributable solely to natural causes as accurately described on the death certificate.”
Scott, from Glenrothes, was found lying on the floor of his cell in HMP Edinburgh on the morning of February 24, 2019, having fallen the previous evening while attempting to stand up from his bunk bed.
Drawers had been opened, a bottle of fizzy juice was open and he had urinated on the floor when his cellmate discovered him.
He was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where tests suggested he had suffered aspiration pneumonia and acute kidney injury resulting from a seizure.
Scott’s condition continued to deteriorate in the following days and, on March 5, the consultant in charge formed the opinion he was dying and needed end of life care.
A report into the FAI has now confirmed the Scottish Prison Service applied for Scott to be released from custody on compassionate grounds on March 6, which was signed off by his consultant on the same day and the prison’s social work department and governor the following day.
Scott died on the evening of March 7 without being released.
The High Court previously heard he began molesting his first victim at addresses and in a car in Glenrothes, in Fife, in 1982, when she was 10.
He carried out sex acts on the girl and later raped her until she was aged 14 in 1986.
He preyed on a second girl from when she was aged 14 at a house in the Fife town and molested her on an occasion between July 1982 and July 1983. He went on to have sex with her when she was asleep.
Scott denied the offending during his trial but was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
