August 1995 Rapist gets eight years for brutal attack A pervert who raped a 20-year-old stranger after tying her up in a bizarre sexual ritual was yesterday jailed for eight years. Johnnie Burt, 31, attacked the woman as she took a short cut through waste ground in Paisley last December. He pulled a chunk of hair from her head, kicked her in the face, and stripped her. Burt tied her clothing round her head and carried out sex acts. At one point, he snapped a long, thin branch from a tree and assaulted the helpless girl with it. He then raped her. At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Burt, of Blackstoun Oval, Paisley, was found guilty of the rape at the rear of a shop in Greenhill Road, Paisley, on December 3 last year. He was also found guilty of threatening and assaulting another woman by abducting her and forcing her to commit a sex act. Burt, who has also lived in Inverurie and whose parents come from Fraserburgh, was told by Lord Clyde that his crimes were ”vicious and brutal”. During the trial, the rape victim had told Mr Jock Thomson, prosecuting, how her ordeal ended when she saw the light of the torches of two policemen who were checking property nearby. After hearing the victim’s screams, they investigated and discovered the woman, terrified and naked, with her head shrouded in a turban of clothes. The officers heard her assailant scuttle into the bushes and put out an alert for him. Minutes later, he was arrested. Although the victim could not identify him, tiny fibres from the woman were found in Burts’ underpants and fibres on her came from his clothing.