12 October 2023 , 20:32
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A teenage rapist dry heaved and cried in the dock as he learned he had been found guilty.
Liam Hughes raped three schoolgirls in Grangemouth and Fallkirk, Stirlingshire, in a series of attacks - telling one "it's meant to hurt". The 18-year-old was convicted on Thursday for the series of separate crimes, which he carried out over an 18-month period when he was aged 15 and 16.
Two of his victims were also 15 - the other still only 14. A fourth girl, also aged 15, was sexually assaulted by Hughes. A trial heard Hughes "forced himself" on his youngest victim at a park in October 2020, then raped one of the other girls in woodland in May 2021.
The second attack, the court heard, was initially consensual before the girl told Hughes to stop as there was a rock underneath her, to which he replied "it's meant to hurt". A month later the same girl woke up at a party to find her underwear had been pulled down and Hughes had raped her while she was asleep. He went on to rape her orally as well.
Hughes was arrested shortly after and bailed, but went on to rape a 15-year old girl nine months later in woods near a primary school in the same town. The girl gave a graphic account of her attack, describing how there had been "a lot of blood" and she was left in "a lot of pain".
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Hughes had claimed the victims had "gotten together and made up stories", but a jury failed to believe him as they found him guilty at the high court in Stirling following two days of deliberation. As the verdicts were delivered, he began dry-heaving saying he was going to vomit, before weeping uncontrollably as he was remanded into custody. His mother, seated in the public gallery, also sobbed.
Charges that he raped two more girls, one aged 14, the other the day after her 16th birthday, were found not proven, and Hughes was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a sixth girl, a 14-year-old. The electrician had previously told the court: "They can say it, but I've never done any of it."
Judge Lord Young remanded him in custody for background reports. He told him: "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 21st.