July 2011 Sex offender Ryan Yates banned from contacting victim A sex offender who attacked a grandmother in an attempt to “get to” her two grandchildren has been banned from contacting another of his victims. Ryan Yates stabbed the 60-year-old grandmother in an Aberdeen park during an attempt to abduct and rape the children, aged eight and two, in 2009. Yates, 31, was jailed last year for a minimum of 10 years. Dundee Sheriff Court heard that Yates sent a letter taunting another woman while he was a prisoner in Peterhead. He admitted writing to the woman in October last year, boasting of abusing her when she was just five years old. The court heard HMP Peterhead’s prison governor said the jail no longer censored prisoner mail as it was against their human rights. Sheriff Elizabeth Munro told Yates the only competent sentence was a fine but that would be pointless because of his long jail term. She instead admonished him but placed him on a sexual offences prevention order for five years, banning him from contact with certain members of the family in question. Yates was jailed last year after he admitted stabbing a 60-year-old woman in Westfield Park, Bridge of Don, as her grandchildren fled. He was caught by police shortly after the attack and said he had gone out that day “looking to find some children to have sex with”. Yates said he intended to kill the woman so he could “get to the kids”. He carried out the attack just days after he was released for an assault with a sexual element. Yates was jailed at the High Court in Glasgow, where the judge said he may never be released.