Kelso rapist jailed for sex attacks on girl from age of eight to 13

A rapist brought to justice years later after a law student reported how she’d suffered at his hands as a child has been jailed for four years.
Kelso rapist Jay Graham, 25.Kelso rapist Jay Graham, 25.
Kelso rapist Jay Graham, 25.

Jay Graham, 25, of Kelso, began preying on his victim when she was only eight years old and carried on for five years.

That long-running series of sex attacks robbed her of her childhood, Graham was told by Lord Iain Armstrong, the judge sentencing him.

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The High Court in Glasgow heard that she’d tried to put that ordeal behind her but lectures at university triggered memories of what had happened to her.

Prosecutor Angela Gray explained: “Some of the classes she enrolled in – about evidence and sexual assault – brought back memories of what happened to her as a child.”

Her parents noticed a change in her behaviour and, when asked what was wrong, she told them last November about how Graham had targeted her.

Graham was sentenced yesterday, September 18, after admitting two rape charges and one of having unlawful sex at an earlier hearing, held in Edinburgh in July.

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Those crimes were committed at various locations in the Borders between July 2006 and July 2011.

Lord Armstrong told Graham: “You are responsible for robbing her of the innocence of her childhood.

“The crimes are grave and disturbing.”

Graham was also put on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

July’s hearing was told that Graham, aged 12 at the time he started preying on the girl, four years his junior, owned up immediately when questioned by police last December but claimed he hadn’t realised what he’d been doing made him a rapist.

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Miss Gray said: “The accused’s position was that, at the time of the incidents, he was not aware that his actions would be classed as rape.

“The accused stated that he felt disgusted and wished he could go back and stop himself from doing anything.”

His QC, John Scullion, added that Graham, diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, had become socially isolated growing up.

The sex attacker continued to be upset by what he had done, said Mr Scullion, and wanted to accept responsibility for his wrongdoing.

“He feels great shame about his behaviour,” the defence advocate told the previous hearing.