Double rapist Sean Moynihan faces life detention Published duration 30 June 2015

image copyright Spindrift image caption Sean Moynihan has been convicted of raping two women

A man who was jailed for raping a teenage girl in 2009 could be jailed for life after raping another teenager on a cycle path in Renfrewshire.

Sean Moynihan, 30, was convicted of raping the woman, 18, at knifepoint in Johnstone on 2 October 2014.

He is later thought to have trawled her Facebook page for information to support claims the sex was consensual.

Judge Bill Dunlop described Moynihan as "a very dangerous young man" and deferred sentence to a later date.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that Moynihan was armed with a "rape kit" - including a knife and condoms - when he targeted the young woman.

Victim's evidence

The victim was walking on the cycle track and recalled initially seeing Moynihan in front of her.

The teenager thought he was stopping for a rest while out jogging.

Moynihan disappeared from view, but the victim wept as she told the court of then being grabbed from behind and a knife put to her neck.

Moynihan - who also wanted money and ordered the young woman to be quiet - forced her off the path and told her to strip naked.

image caption Police forensic officers examined the scene of the rape in Johnstone

The victim told the trial: "I was crying as I started taking my clothes off. I was saying: 'why are you doing this?'

"He said: 'Don't ask silly questions or I will stab you.'"

Moynihan made her sit on a jumper he had put on the ground before he initially started molesting the terrified teenager.

Recalling then being raped, the young woman said: "There were tears coming out of my eyes - I was scared. It went on for about five minutes"

Victim hysterical

She eventually escaped when he allowed her to leave. The hysterical girl then met a friend and ran to him for safety.

The victim said she was a "mess" by the time her parents came to collect her.

Her mum told the jury: "She said that she had been raped and that was when she fell into my arms. I felt sick.

The jury watched Moynihan's police interview in which he claimed he had met her weeks earlier outside a local supermarket.

Moynihan then told detectives how he happened to bump into her at the cycle track - and within minutes they were having consensual sex.

The sex attacker named the teenager and insisted she had casually chatted about her mum's job, an ex-boyfriend and how she got on with her family.

But, it is thought Moynihan trawled the victim's Facebook page shortly after the rape for information.

Prosecutors described this as a "cover-up" in a bid to fool detectives into believing what happened was consensual.

Moynihan said he had gone on to Facebook, but to "let her down gently" as he did not see anything between them being "long term".

Previous conviction

Moynihan was jailed at the high court in 2009 after raping a 16-year-old girl, who thought his car was a taxi.

He drove her to Gleniffer Braes in Paisley before forcing the teenager to have sex.

At the time of the latest rape, he was under supervision and on the sex offenders' register.

Following his conviction, judge Bill Dunlop told Moynihan: "You have been convicted of rape for the second time.

"The nature of this offence shows beyond doubt that you are a very, very dangerous young man.

"The degree of planning to avoid detection can only be described as chilling."

Prosecutor Alison Di Rollo moved for a full risk assessment to be carried out on Moynihan prior to sentencing later this year.

This could eventually lead to an Order for Lifelong Restriction being imposed meaning Moynihan may never be freed.

It later emerged that Moynihan has also been convicted for assault and a string of violent offences.

Related Topics Johnstone