Man only jailed for three years for raping 12-year-old girl in park
7 June 2023, 19:20 | Updated: 7 June 2023, 19:25
A man has been sentenced to just three years in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl.
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Myles Harris, 19, raped the girl at Gala Policies park in Galashiels in Scotland in January last year, Edinburgh High Court heard.
The judge, Lord Scott, said Harris would probably have been put behind bars for longer if he had been older. Harris pleaded guilty, which the judge said also cut his sentence by 18 months.
Lord Scott added that the starting point for the sentence was "less than it would have been" if the guidelines for the sentencing of young people had not applied.
The girl Harris raped still suffers from "serious" and "ongoing" effects from the attack every day, the judge said.
Harris, who was 18 at the time, has no memory of the rape because he was so intoxicated, the court heard.
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His defence lawyer Lili Prais said Harris had started taking drugs when he was just 12, and had fallen into a bad crowd. His substance abuse only got worse as he got older, she told the court.
Ms Prais said that Harris had made some "extremely poor" decisions, leading to the rape on January 16 last year.
She added: "He is devastated by the actions of that night. He accepts full responsibility.
"He has no memory of the incident. He had consumed substances.
"He no longer misuses drugs or alcohol. He is no longer associating with negative peer groups."
Harris has since moved away to live with his grandparents in Canterbury, and will do anything the court thought could help his rehabilitation.
"There is no better example of capacity to show change," she said.
Judge Scott said a prison sentence was justified considering the seriousness of the offence.
"You raped a child when you were 18 and she was only 12," he said. "You knew her age."
The judge added that Harris using drugs and alcohol is "no excuse or mitigation at all" for his crime.
Harris, who admitted the offence and appeared in the court by video-link from custody, was told his three-year sentence would be backdated to the day he was taken into custody last month.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
The sentencing of Harris comes two months after Sean Hogg, 21, avoided prison after raping a 13-year-old girl in Scotland when he was 17.
Judge Lord Lake said that based on Scottish sentencing guidelines under-25s, he had decided that imprisoning Hogg would not help him become a better person.
Hogg was given 270 hours of community work, added to the sex offenders register and paced under supervision for three years
The Scottish Crown Office said it would appeal the sentence.
