RYAN YATES ABERDEEN SEX OFFENDER BANNED AFTER ATTACK ON GRANDMOTHER AND CHILDREN
In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Aberdeen community, Ryan Yates, a convicted sex offender, has faced further restrictions following a violent incident in Westfield Park, Bridge of Don.The 31-year-old was previously sentenced to a minimum of ten years in prison for a brutal attack on a 60-year-old grandmother, an assault that involved stabbing her during an attempt to abduct her two young grandchildren, aged eight and two, in 2009.
Details emerged during a court hearing that Yates had also targeted another woman while he was incarcerated at HMP Peterhead.
It was revealed that he sent a letter to this woman in October of the previous year, in which he boasted about abusing her when she was just five years old.
The prison authorities initially censored prisoner mail, but the prison governor at Peterhead explained that the policy was changed because censoring was deemed a violation of prisoners' human rights.
During the hearing, Sheriff Elizabeth Munro addressed Yates directly, stating that the only appropriate sentence would be a fine.
However, she acknowledged that such a penalty would be ineffective given his lengthy prison sentence.
Instead, she chose to admonish him and imposed a sexual offences prevention order for five years.
This order explicitly prohibits Yates from having contact with certain members of the family involved in the earlier incidents.
Yates’s criminal history includes a violent attack in Westfield Park, where he stabbed a woman in front of her fleeing grandchildren.
Police apprehended him shortly after the assault, and he confessed that he had gone out that day with the intent to find children to sexually assault.
He also admitted that his motivation was to kill the woman in order to gain access to the children.
His criminal activities have been ongoing, with the attack occurring just days after his release from a previous sentence related to a sexual assault.
The case was brought before the High Court in Glasgow, where the judge expressed the possibility that Yates might never be released from prison, given the severity of his crimes and the danger he poses to the community.
