Serial rapist jailed in Edinburgh for attacks on underage girls

A serial rapist who targeted underage girls has been jailed for six years.

Bradley Booth, 22, had been convicted last month of 11 sexual offences against seven victims aged between 13 and 15.

He was a teenager when he committed the crimes in Edinburgh and East Lothian between 2016 and 2019.

As well as being sent to prison, Booth, of Edinburgh, was told he will remain on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

During the sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday, Lord Tyre said the three most serious offences were for raping three different girls.

He added: "The experience continues to have a devastating effect on them some years after."

The judge said he took into account sentencing guidelines for young people and Booth's lack of previous criminal offending, noting that the sentence would have been longer for an adult offender.

At an earlier trial, the court heard the first victim was a 13-year-old who was attacked in the Niddrie area of Edinburgh in 2016.

Booth, a former airport duty free worker, then committed a rape the following year when he attacked a 14-year-old girl at a house in Niddrie.

He also sent sexual communications to another 14-year-old in Edinburgh between March 2017 and March 2018 and twice had sex with the girl.

The jury was told Booth admitted being in contact with another 15-year-old girl, who he raped in her home in Haddington in March 2018.

The former airport worker was also convicted of having underage sex with a further 14-year-old girl at a house in Edinburgh between 20 May and 30 June 2018.

He also indecently communicated with a girl aged under 16 at addresses in Edinburgh between February 2017 and June 2019 by sending her explicit pictures on Snapchat and asking her to send him sexual images of herself.

Finally, Booth was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl he had contacted by text and Snapchat.