Social worker jailed for rapes and sex assaults

A social worker has been jailed for eight years after he was convicted for a series of rapes and sexual assaults.

Thomas Proctor was found guilty of attacking three women in Glasgow, Fife and Lanarkshire between January 2002 and August 2019.

The High Court in Glasgow heard he used his job to prey on the women, as well as threatening to have the children of two of them removed from their care.

The 43-year-old raped one woman while she was recovering in hospital.

He also took advantage of a victim after she drank water with a mystery substance in it.

Proctor, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire, had denied the accusations but jurors found him guilty of a total of 11 charges.

The charges against him included the repeated rape and indecent assault of the first woman at different locations in Lanarkshire.

Proctor was found guilty of sexually assaulting the second woman at a flat in Glasgow's Maryhill.

He was also convicted of raping and making threats to a third woman in Fife and Lanarkshire.

Judge William Gallacher imposed an 11-year extended sentence on Proctor, meaning he will be in prison for eight years and under supervision upon his release for three years.

The judge told Proctor his actions were "simply disgraceful."

He added: "It is difficult to figure out the appropriate sentence due to the level of abuse carried out over a period of time.

"I will impose a significant penalty. You will have grasped that because of the gravity of this case, there is only one thing I can do."

After the sentencing, one of Proctor's victims said: "I am really pleased with the judge's reflections of the offences.

"I understand the appropriate length of the sentence however my fear is that it doesn't reflect the number of potential other victims."

An indefinite non-harassment order against Proctor's victims was granted. He was also put on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.

In his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Alan Parfery told how Proctor was "calculated in a predatory fashion" towards his victims.

The first woman was raped while she was recuperating in hospital from a medical procedure.

Proctor attacked the woman again at a house in Lanarkshire after he came into the room and pulled down her pyjamas.

The second victim recalled waking up to finding Proctor molesting her.

The final woman got to know Proctor having met him online.

The court heard she ended up in his company after she returned from a night out with friends at the Edinburgh Festival.

She said Proctor gave her a glass of water and they kissed, but her next memory was waking up in some pain.

Prosecutors said he had caused the woman to "ingest an unknown substance in water" to overpower her for sexual activity.

Jurors heard a similar sort of incident happened on two other occasions.

He gave her water, told her to "drink up" before she later awoke and had "flashbacks" to what had happened.

In his closing speech, Mr Parfery said Proctor spoke of his position as a social worker to make sure threats to two of the women "packed a punch".

Referring to one of the victim, the prosecutor put to him: "You told her that you held such a job and how the system worked.

"That she should be intimate with you if she wanted to keep her child. The cruellest of cruel threats."

Proctor denied the accusation adding that he never mentioned his work to "threaten" anyone.

He had latterly been a social worker in the Alloa area in Clackmannanshire before being suspended.

After the case Clackmannanshire Council confirmed Proctor was no longer employed by the local authority.