February 2014 Rapist from St Albans jailed for four years A St Albans man who raped a nine year old girl when he was a teenager has been jailed for four years. Lachlan Gillies, 29, of Tillage Close, Tyttenhanger, was convicted at St Albans crown court of one charge of rape and three of indecency with a child. At yesterday’s (Wednesday) sentencing, Judge Stephen Warner also ordered Gillies to register as a sex offender for life. Gillies had sexually abused the girl on four occasions in 1999 when he was aged 14 or 15. He got her to perform a sex act on him on three occasions and raped her once. He had denied the charges during his trial, but his lawyer Andel Singh said yesterday that Gillies had since admitted his guilt to a probation officer, who prepared a report on him. Mr Singh said: “There is a genuine sense of remorse from Mr Gillies about the way he behaved as a young man. He feels disgusted with himself. The whole episode has been eating away at him for the whole of his life.” The court heard that Gillies had confessed to the offence to his then partner in 2008, but the police were not told until January last year when they were contacted by another woman. The judge told him: “The victim was young, vulnerable and confused. You used her as an outlet for your sexual urges. She told no one for many years. She did not think she would be believed.”