Grangemouth teen found guilty of raping three schoolgirls

Liam Hughes was aged only 15 and 16 when he raped his victims in a series of incidents in the Falkirk and Grangemouth areas over a period of 18 months.

Two of his victims were also 15 – the other still only 14.

A fourth girl, also aged 15, was sexually assaulted by Hughes.

The High Court in Stirling heard Hughes, now 18, "forced himself" on his youngest rape victim in Grangemouth’s Zetland Park in October 2020, then in May the next year he raped one of the 15 year olds in woods in the town.

The court heard the woodland rape, near Primrose Avenue, had begun as consensual sex, but the girl had begged Hughes to stop because there was a rock or stone beneath her.

She said that he ignored her, however, and carried on, telling her, "It's meant to hurt."

A month later the same girl woke up at a party in Hallglen, to find her underwear had been pulled down and Hughes' had sex with her with she was asleep.

Within days she had gone to police.

Hughes was quickly arrested and appeared on petition at Falkirk Sheriff Court but was released on bail. Nine months later, in March last year he went on to rape a 15-year old girl – whom he'd never met before – in woods near a primary school in Grangemouth.

The girl gave the court what prosecutor Ali Murray described as "a graphic account of what happened to her".

She said she was raped, there was "a lot of blood", and she was "in a lot of pain".

Hughes, an electrician, of Castleton Crescent, Grangemouth, who denied the offences, said the girls had "got together and made up stories" against him.

He said: "They can say it, but I've never done any of it."

After six days of evidence, a jury of eight men and seven women deliberated for almost two full days before find Hughes guilty by majority of raping the three girls, one of them twice, and sexually assaulting the fourth girl.

Charges that he raped two more girls, one aged 14, the other the day after her 16th birthday, were found not proven, and he was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a sixth girl, a 14-year-old.

He wept as the verdicts were recorded.

Remanding him in custody for background reports, Judge Lord Young said: "You've been convicted by the jury of charges of rape and sexual assault.

"I'm not going to grant bail – the offences are too serious for that."

He was placed on the sex offenders' register and will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on November 21.

Edward Targowski KC, defending, reserved mitigation.