Scottish rapist who fled to Ghana is jailed
A rapist who fled to Ghana for 10 years in order to escape justice has been jailed for 10 years in Scotland.
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The rapist, James Arnott was jailed for sex crimes the judge Norman Ritchie QC described as a "catalogue of depravity".
The 47-year-old was convicted of abusing a woman and three young girls between 1979 and 1998 in Glasgow and Fife but only faced trial after trying to kill himself in Ghana last year.
Arnott dodged justice for a decade by fleeing Scotland but has now been brought to justice for 20 years of rape and sexual abuse.
He handed himself in to the Ghanaian authorities and was sent back to Scotland to face justice.
He repeatedly raped a woman for over four years starting in 1979. The former plasterer also abused three girls until the late 1990s.
One of his victims was aged around five when it began while the other two were in their early teens.
Arnott was originally due to appear at the High Court in Glasgow in September 2015 but he fled to Accra.
The Daily Record reports that, the dad-of-nine failed to show before handing himself into the African authorities and being hauled back to Scotland.
The rapist who is said to have left behind a lover in Ghana was found guilty of a total of seven charges including rape and indecent assault.
The judge in the verdict said it was "not unsurprising" he was convicted given the victims' evidence.
He added: "This was a catalogue of depravity over almost 20 years."