Man Guilty Of Second Teen Rape

30 June 2015, 12:53 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A personal trainer has been found guilty of raping a teenager at knifepoint - after being freed from jail for another sex attack.

Sean Moynihan pounced on the 18-year-old in broad daylight as she walked along a cycle track in Johnstone, Renfrewshire last October.

Armed with a "rape kit" - including a six-inch blade and condoms - he ordered his victim to strip before forcing her into sex.

The girl told a jury how she was left a "mess" after her harrowing ordeal.

Moynihan insisted to detectives the sex had been consensual - and even claimed the victim had happily chatted about her family and an ex-lover.

But, in a bid to back-up his lies, police believe the 30 year-old scoured her Facebook page after the attack to glean personal information about her.

Moynihan now faces life in jail after being convicted at the High Court in Glasgow of the sex attack.

He had been back on the streets after being locked up for more than six years in 2009 for raping another teenage girl.

Moynihan was also apparently under supervision at the time and was already on the sex offenders list indefinitely.

Other crimes to his name include a further high conviction for assault and a string of violent offences.

A judge branded him a "very dangerous young man" as sentencing was deferred until September.

The victim was walking on a cycle track in Johnstone, Renfrewshire when she was attacked around 2pm last October 2.

She 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 of then being grabbed from behind and a knife put to her neck.

She said: "It was so quick, I did not know how to feel. He was rough...and he walked me into the trees.

"He was demanding and I began to feel scared. I knew what was going to happen - I knew that I was going to be raped."

Moynihan - who also wanted money and ordered the young woman to be quiet - forced her further into an area full of stinging nettles.

The victim then remembered Moynihan "aggressively" telling her to strip naked.

She 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.

She told the jury: "He said: 'you are some bit of stuff'. I felt horrible."

The victim told how Moynihan, of Paisley, next brought out a bag of condoms he had with him.

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

She eventually escaped his clutches 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.

"When we got home, she sat on the bed and I just held her."

The teenager told the court how she had never met Moynihan before.

But, the jury watched his police interview in which the rapist 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.

He claimed: "The patter was flowing...we began kissing. I stated that I liked her and she liked me.

"She suggested that there is an area that we could go down. We were there for over an hour."

Moynihan added: "At no time did she say no or in any way hesitate."

He said when he left the girl they were "laughing and joking" with the victim appearing "brilliant".

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.

This also included him lying that he was long-term friends with the victim's cousin.

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".

He claimed he only became aware of any rape allegations when he spotted a story in a local paper - while celebrating news he was to be a dad.

Moynihan is believed to have been working as a personal trainer after being freed from jail.

He 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.

He was also ordered to be supervised for a further three years on his release.

After this latest 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 he may never be freed.