Sentence deferred on ‘abhorrent’ man convicted of two rapes
A Lerwick man who raped two underage girls after committing his first sex attack as a schoolboy has had his sentence deferred for reports.
Shaun Penders was 16 when he carried out a sexual assault on a teenage girl outside a public hall in Shetland in 2015.
He went on to rape a 13-year-old child in Shetland in 2019 before raping another girl in Aberdeen city centre three years later.
Penders, now 24, denied a series of charges during a trial.
But he was today (Thursday) convicted of committing the sexual assault, two rapes and a further charge of indecently communicating with a child.
The trial judge told him: “You have been found guilty of a number of extremely serious charges in which it is apparent you have preyed on very young girls for your own sexual gratification.”
Lord Lake told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Your offending is abhorrent.”
Penders sexually attacked a teenager outside a village hall in December 2015, with the woman telling the court: “There were a number of times I said ‘stop’ and ‘no’ but that wasn’t making any difference.”
She managed to get to a toilet and hid until Penders left.
The woman did not give a statement to police until 2018, and said she came forward when she “found out he was doing the same thing, abusing other girls”.
The girl who was raped in Shetland by Penders in 2019 said he had bought vodka which she was drinking.
She said: “He was touching me in the wrong places. He tried to take my clothes off and I tried to stop him, but it was like my whole body went numb. I tried to move his hands away. I was trying to speak.”
Penders was convicted of raping the girl while she was intoxicated and drifting in and out of consciousness in May 2019.
During a trip to Aberdeen in February 2022 with his then girlfriend he met two girls who were aged 13 and 14.
Pender was convicted of subjecting the 13-year-old girl to an oral rape while she was in an intoxicated state and drifting in and out of consciousness in a lane in the city.
His then girlfriend was visiting a relative at the time.
Penders was subject to a sexual offences prevention order at the time, which prohibited him from having contact with persons aged under 16.
The judge deferred sentence on Penders for the preparation of a background report on him. He will be sentenced on 8th November at the High Court in Livingston.
Penders was placed on the sex offenders’ register.
