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A 21-year-old man is potentially facing a life sentence after abducting and raping a 15-year-old girl in a basement storage area in Edinburgh city centre. Aaron Strachan followed the teenager before threatening her with a knife and forcing her to walk through the streets in the early hours of 25 May last year. The attack took place after the girl had been walking home from a friend’s house.
Sentencing has been postponed by Judge Michael O’Grady KC to allow further reports to be prepared that will assess whether Strachan qualifies for a lifelong restriction order. Such an order would mean he could only be released when the parole board is satisfied he no longer poses a danger to the public. During the hearing, the judge described Strachan as “clearly out of control” and capable of extreme violence, calling the crime “as disturbing and as wicked as I have seen on these many years on the bench.” He added that the rape “contains almost every aggravating feature it is possible to imagine.”
Strachan’s criminal history includes 13 prior convictions, with three involving serious violence using weapons such as a knife and a hammer. The judge characterized Strachan as “a deeply dangerous individual” and noted that the young victim “would forever walk in the awful shadow of what you did to her in a dingy cellar.” Advocate depute Chris McKenna explained that the girl had been walking along Lothian Road to a bus stop when Strachan, wearing a balaclava, sat beside her, prompting her to move to a bus stop on Princes Street. Strachan followed her, demanded her phone, threatened her with a knife, and then forced her down steps to a basement where the assault occurred. Before leaving, he warned her not to tell anyone and threatened further harm if she did.
In addition to the rape charge, Strachan admitted to two other violent assaults. One involved an unprovoked attack on Steven Logan in South Bridge, Edinburgh, where he repeatedly struck Logan’s hand with a knife. In another case in the Tollcross area, he attacked Walid Bekri El Maaroufi with a hammer, fracturing his skull and leaving him semi-conscious. The victim required surgery and now suffers ongoing pain and must take anti-epileptic medication. Police described the initial assault on the teenage girl as “harrowing,” emphasizing the profound impact it had on her life
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