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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Court reporter

Sex attacker jailed for seven years for raping Good Samaritan who offered him place to stay

A sex attacker who raped a Good Samaritan he "used" for a place to stay has been jailed for seven years.

Connor Gallagher struck on July 1 2018 just days after he had been freed early from jail for a horror assault on a pensioner.

The sobbing 40-year-old victim begged Gallagher to stop during the attack at her flat in Glasgow's Maryhill.

The woman - who has since passed away - got justice from beyond the grave after the 25 year-old was convicted of rape.

Gallagher was sentenced today at the High Court in Glasgow by Judge Simon Collins.

Gallagher had been jailed for six years in 2015 for a brutal street attack on a 72-year-old man also in the north Glasgow area.

However, he was back on the streets on June 29 2018. Later that same day he then met the victim, who he did not know.

Jurors heard how she ended up letting Gallagher stay at the flat because he was homeless.

But he repaid that generosity by carrying out a brutal sex attack.

The trial heard the woman's emotional police statement made on the day of the rape.

The victim - described as "extremely upset" - had insisted on speaking with a female officer. She told a detective: "I was gripping the pillow and saying: 'please just stop. I do not want this'."

Gallagher had claimed any sex with the older woman had been consensual.

During a number of slurs against her, the sick thug insisted she had "simply pretended" to be upset and had been crying "crocodile tears".

Gallagher claimed the victim "wanted to get him in trouble" because he had decided to stay elsewhere.

In his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Bernard Ablett stated: "He had no interest in her. He said in evidence that he was simply using her for accommodation.

"You might come to the view that he did something more than use her just for that."

It emerged after the verdict that Gallagher carried out an assault at the TRNSMT music festival at Glasgow Green on the same day as the rape.

He was eventually sentenced to five months for that at Glasgow Sheriff Court in January 2019.

Gallagher was also ordered at that hearing to serve the remaining 730 days of the six year term he had been freed from.

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