March 2017 Rapist sentenced to 12 years A sex offender that tried to rape a four-year-old girl during an “appalling catalogue” of abuse has been jailed. Stephen Craig also held a knife to the neck of another female he repeatedly raped over the course of 24 years. He was previously found guilty of abusing three other young girls during the same period. The 52-year-old has now been jailed for 12 years at the High Court in Edinburgh after he was previously found guilty of the sex crimes at various addresses in Stirling and Glasgow. Judge Norman Ritchie QC told Craig: “You have been convicted of a truly appalling catalogue of crimes of violence and sexual abuse.” The judge praised Craig’s victims for coming forward and told him: “The impact of your criminality on them has been profound and long-lasting. “The risk assessment in the social work report states that you are at low risk of reoffending – I do not accept that. “In fact the accuracy of that assessment is contradicted by the suggestion in the report that you need to be closely monitored after your release. “Any reasonable person would accept that you present a risk.” ‘The risk assessment in the social work report states that you are at low risk of reoffending – I do not accept that.’ Craig was found guilty of 12 charges of rape and lewd and libidinous behaviour, indecent assaults and sexual assaults against children His attacks included constant derogatory name calling, placing a knife at her throat and threatening to kill her. The offences were committed between 1987 and 2011.