Edinburgh rapist who joined religious cult is facing hefty prison stretch
Stephen Inglis breached a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) by deliberately deleting internet history from his mobile phone earlier this year.
The 32-year-old also breached the strict court order when he started a romantic relationship with a woman without informing the authorities who monitor him to prevent him from carrying out further offences and to ensure he adheres to the conditions imposed under the SOPO.
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Hide AdInglis then admitted the offences to police officers who were checking up on his behaviour in August this year - and demanded to be arrested.
The SOPO conditions state he is barred from deleting internet history, texts and emails from any device and also from having relationships with women without informing the Edinburgh offenders management unit.
Inglis admitted the serious SOPO breaches when he appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Chris Dickson remanded Inglis in custody and deferred sentence to next month for social work reports to be prepared.
A source said: “Inglis was terrified about being on the outside as people had started to find out what he had done to that poor woman all those years ago.
“He feels like he will be protected if he is in prison rather than taking his chances on the streets of Edinburgh.
“He constantly fears like he will be attacked if people know what kind of man he really is. So he decided to hand himself in to the police again as he feels safer in jail.”
Inglis admitted to breaching a SOPO by deleting mobile phone history and forming a relationship with a woman without consent at an address at Poplar Lane, Edinburgh, between April 1 and August 21 this year.
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Hide AdHe was just 19 when he carried out a horrific sex assault on a vulnerable woman during an eight-hour rape attack in her home in Edinburgh in 2007.
He pled guilty to assault and rape at the High Court in Glasgow and was jailed for seven years and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.
And he was also jailed for eight months in 2017 after he breached the SOPO conditions by running off to join “a mad religious cult” in England.
Inglis was baptised into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious movement which was based at the time at Carroty Wood in Kent.
Pictures show him going through the ceremony while dressed in purple robes at a local swimming pool and meeting with female church members who were unaware of his past as a convicted sex offender.
Inglis also admitted he was engaged to an unsuspecting nun within the church and said he viewed their relationship as “like husband and wife”, raising concerns for her safety.
The bizarre tale came to light after Inglis told a project worker about his involvement with the church when said he had joined “a mad religious cult”.
Details of his revelations were passed onto the authorities, landing him back in the dock.