It may be fun and exciting to look for love online, but you need to keep in mind that there are far too many nutters out there – and that if you let them into your life, you could end up getting seriously hurt.
One particularly fine and upstanding citizen, 36 year old Sean Melville, was recently convicted of raping a woman he met through an online dating service. The incident occurred after a night out in Bathgate, West Lothian, where the convicted rapist consumed both lager and vodka to excess before he and his victim, a mother of two, to the woman’s home.
Melville soon became belligerent and abusive towards the woman, starting a row because she neglected to fix him something to eat, according to Susanne Tanner, the advocate depute that prosecuted the case in court. The intoxicated man interrogated the victim on whether she had been taking other men to the pub, insulting her and then physically assaulting her by pushing her down on a nearby couch; the woman, who had had quite enough at that point, told the man to sleep in the spare room before going to bed herself.
Unfortunately, this did not dissuade Melville, who followed the 37 year old mother upstairs a moment or two later, demanding sex from her. Ms Tanner then described how the man raped the woman repeatedly throughout the night; the abused woman only reported the rape once she discovered that her assailant was looking for new women to assault on the dating website where they had originally met.
Melville admitted to the rape at Edinburgh’s High Court. The man remains in custody until his sentencing next month.
