February 2008  A court will hear an appeal by a serial rapist who claims the punishment part of his life sentence was excessive. John Locke was sentenced to at least 15 years in jail after being convicted in the High Court in Inverness of the rape of a 15-year-old girl 10 years ago. Locke, 51, was previously convicted of rape at the high courts in Glasgow and Airdrie in the 1980s. In a newly-released opinion, the Lord Justice General moved that a hearing of the appeal case be held. Locke’s appeal asserts that 15 years was excessive in the face of sentencing practice at the time he was convicted in August 1998. A bid to have it heard by a bench of seven judges was declined. However, two other judges, Lord MacFadyen and Lady Paton, agreed with the Lord Justice General’s ruling that the sentencing should be examined. Locke was also sentenced to three years in 1983 in Glasgow for rape and to 15 years’ imprisonment in 1988 in Airdrie for an assault on a 16-year-old girl.  He raped the 15-year-old girl on an estate in Inverness in 1998, three months following his release from jail after serving 10 years. June 2004 A SERIAL rapist stashed cannabis in his prison cell fish tank and made £500 a week selling it to other cons. John Locke, 48, and two other sex offender cons who were in on the scam have now been moved from Peterhead jail. Ringleader Locke, who is serving life for his third rape conviction, was transported from the Aberdeenshire prison to Barlinnie in Glasgow. Other inmates had told prison bosses former boxer Locke was making a fortune from the drug, which sells for around twice its street price behind bars. Prison officers searched his cell and he was moved early in the morning before other cons had their cells opened. A source at the jail said: ‘Locke must have been making more than £500 a week. ‘He was supposedly keeping the gear in his fish tank. It’s like something froma film. ‘Everybody in the jail knew it was Locke supplying the cannabis but the warders have been trying to find evidence for a while. ‘Other cons went forward with information and he was moved out early in the morning. ‘His cell was searched and the word is that they found enough to suggest he’d been dealing. ‘At first, nobody knew where he had gone but news has spread round the jail quickly since. ‘A lot of people thought Locke was untouchable and his move has shocked them.’ The other cons involved are believed to have been moved to Dumfries and Edinburgh prisons. Locke originally from the Coatbridge area of Lanarkshire was convicted in 1998 at the High Court in Inverness of raping a schoolgirl. He had been freed three months before from a 15-year rape sentence, despite a psychiatrist warning he was likely to strike again. Locke who once trained with Scots boxing champion Jim Watt dragged the 15–year-old girl into a garden and raped her as she walked home in Inverness late at night. His first rape conviction was in 1983. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Prison Service said: ‘We cannot comment on individual prisoners.’ September 1998 I was the second one he raped. He got out of prison early and raped another girl. When he is freed again he will rape.. again MORE than 10 years have passed since John Locke raped Elaine, then felt for her pulse before walking away laughing, leaving her for dead. The physical pain was almost unbearable and the emotional scars have never healed. But it was the final moment that haunted her throughout Locke’s decade behind bars. “He thought I was dead and was laughing at what he had achieved,” she said. “That’s when I knew he would rape again.” Elaine’s fears were well founded. She later learned he’d attacked her just three months after being freed from jail for a previous rape. Then, just three months after Locke was given a third off his 15-year sentence for attacking Elaine, he left a schoolgirl covered in blood after subjecting her to a brutal rape. This time he was jailed for life with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 15 years. But Elaine has no doubt that when he is released he will rape another woman. Now she is launching a campaign for a change in the law to ensure sex offenders must serve their full sentence. “I knew Locke would strike again because he seemed to take such pleasure from what he was doing to me,” she said. “Apparently a psychiatric report in the prison said he would re-offend, but as the law stands there was no way he could be kept in jail because he had been well behaved. “There was no doubt in my mind he would rape someone else the first chance he got. “I wanted to be wrong but I knew I wasn’t, and when he attacked that 15- year-old girl the only surprise was that he didn’t kill her.” It was the early hours of January 15, 1988 – just a week after her 19th birthday – and Elaine was saying goodbye to her friends at the end of a night out. SOME details of the horrific ordeal which followed have been blanked from her memory. Others she recalls as if it happened yesterday. This is her shocking story. “I was saying goodbye to my pals because I was going in one direction to get a taxi and they were going in another. “Just as we were splitting up Locke came up to me and asked if he could walk me home. “I’d never set eyes on him in my life and I could tell he was a good bit older than me so I said: ‘No thanks, I’m not into sugar daddies’. “He started to walk away and my friends and I went our separate ways. “But as soon as they had turned the corner he came back and grabbed me from behind. “He stuck a knife at my throat and dragged me off the street and took me under a bridge over a disused railway line. “More than 100 people saw him grab me but nobody did a thing to help because they all thought it was a domestic incident. “A police car drove past while he was dragging me and I thought I was saved but they didn’t see me. “And while the attack was going on I could hear people on the bridge but they couldn’t hear me. “He tied me up, beat me and raped me repeatedly. The whole thing must have lasted for about two hours – but it seemed to go on forever. I was pretending to be unconscious and he was calling me names because I would not wake up. “I was sure he was going to kill me because at one point, when I was really desperate, I said: ‘Just wait until my father gets hold of you.’ And he said ‘You won’t see your father tonight, hen.’ “He ripped all my clothes off and shredded them and I was naked at the end. “When it was over he tried to feel my pulse on my wrist and neck and then he walked away laughing at what he had achieved. “He thought I was dead and I could tell he had got a kick out of that, which is why I thought he would kill his next victim. “After he’d gone I could hear some workmen on a nearby railway line and they gave me clothes and called the police. “They took me to the police station where I had to be examined and that was like being raped all over again. IT was a male doctor who did it and it was a humiliating experience. I think that any rape victim should be able to insist that she is examined by a female doctor.” Police knew almost immediately that Elaine’s attacker was likely to have been John Locke and they had him in custody within 48 hours. It later emerged Locke had tried to abduct another woman with the same hairstyle and clothes as Elaine earlier that night. But Elaine’s ordeal was still not over, because Locke, then 31, pleaded not guilty at his trial and she had to face him across the courtroom to give evidence. “That was another nightmare,” she said. “Having to relive the whole thing with him listening to me.” Ten years on, every day is still a battle for Elaine, who comes from Lanarkshire but wants her surname withheld as she has not yet told her two young daughters about her attack. She cannot work and is unable to take public transport anywhere because of her fear of strangers. And she feels more comfortable with her doors and windows open when she has visitors to her house. She has also been seeing psychiatrists on and off for the last 10 years. PEOPLE think rape is just about the man trying to have sex with you,” she said. “But it’s not just that. It’s the violence and humiliation. Rape is worse than murder because I have to live with it day in and day out. “John Locke has ripped out my soul. He has left me just a shell. I suffer from nightmares, panic attacks and hallucinations. “Some days I feel like a prisoner in my own house and other days I go out because I am scared to stay in. “I have suffered from eating disorders and at one stage my weight dropped to six and a half stones. Doctors said it was because of the mental strain I was under.” Locke’s most recent victim was a 15-year-old girl in Inverness. At his trial last month, the High Court heard a psychiatrist describe him as a “dangerous” individual, prone to further offences when drunk. It was hearing Locke had struck again after being released five years early that spurred Elaine into action. The current law states that any offender sentenced to more than four years must be released after serving two-thirds, provided they have behaved behind bars A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “Even if a prisoner announces he will rape someone as soon as he is released there is nothing we can do to keep him behind bars.” ELAINE has already met MP Helen Liddell, who has written to Scottish Home Affairs Minister Henry McLeish, bringing Elaine’s campaign for a change in the law to his attention. A spokesman for Mr McLeish’s office promised to treat Mrs Liddell’s letter “very seriously”. Elaine is also writing to every MP in the country as well as pressure groups and other campaigners. She knows a change in the law cannot undo what she has been through. But she feels it will be worthwhile if it keeps other John Lockes behind bars. In the meantime, she devotes her time to her husband and two daughters. “I have known my husband since we were young children and we were going out together at the time of the attack,” she said. “I honestly do not think I could have got through it without him. “It is very hard for him to deal with too because I have never discussed the details of what happened. But he accepts that’s the way I want to deal with it. “For a while, I did consider suicide, but I realised if I did that Locke would have won and there’s no way I’m letting that happen. “I know I will never recover from what happened but I still believe I have a lot to live for – like my two beautiful little girls.”