Serial rapist jailed for targeting vulnerable women

A serial rapist who attacked five vulnerable women at knifepoint in Dundee has been jailed for 14 years.

Alexander Steven, 52, targeted his victims between October 2020 and October 2022.

A trial judge said Steven deliberately preyed on overseas sex workers, as he thought they would be unlikely to contact police.

He was found guilty of five rape charges and a further two of sexual assault with intent to rape.

The trial was told that Steven told one of his victims: "Who are the police going to believe? A white Scottish man or a Brazilian prostitute?"

Judge Norman McFadyen KC ordered Steven to be supervised in the community for a further four years following his release from jail.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for life.

McFadyen told the jurors at the end of the trial last year: "This has been a particularly troublesome case and I appreciate you have had to listen to, and indeed watch, distressing evidence."

During the trial the jury was shown a video shot by Steven on a mobile phone of an exposed woman who was tied to a bed while being sexually assaulted.

Steven claimed that victims were taking part in role play with him during the assaults.

His first victim told the court she moved into a flat in Dundee after breaking up with a boyfriend in London.

She answered a knock and a male intruder came in and shut the door.

The woman, who spoke through a translator, said: "Then he showed me this knife with him and then he forced me into this room."

The woman, who said she was not a sex worker, subsequently escaped through a window.

Steven was convicted of forcing his way into the flat in 2020 and assaulting the woman with intent to rape her.

Steven carried out his first rape two months later when he attacked a woman in the Lochee area of the city.

The following year he raped the woman again when she was again subjected to an attack with a knife held at her neck.

In August 2021 Steven attacked and raped a third woman at a flat in the city after a knife was put to her throat.

A fourth woman was subjected to assaults and rape by Steven between March 2021 and October the following year.

During the abuse, knives were held to her throat and she was threatened with a screwdriver.

A fifth woman said Steven came to a flat in Hilltown in May 2022 and subjected her to an assault and rape.

She said when he arrived she told him he would have to pay her first, but he produced a knife and put it against her neck and told her: "I don't pay for sex".

She offered to give him money but he replied: "I don't want money. I want sex."

The woman said she was "very much afraid".

Steven told the court that at first he went to see sex workers for sex but then decided to "explore the idea of doing more".

He said he used Google Translate to communicate with the women.

The court heard he asked if they did role play, specifically rape role play, but told them they would not be hurt.

Steven said he believed he had the consent of all the women for what took place.

Advocate depute Leanne Cross said he made appointments with women who were usually working on their own and were in a vulnerable position when he turned up armed with a weapon.

Defence counsel Janice Green said it was an unusual case as Steven's criminal conduct had manifested itself in his middle age.

The judge also made non-harassment orders banning Steven from contacting or attempting to contact his victims.