Paul Cunningham, 35, had denied raping the girl while she was intoxicated after giving the teenager and her friend’s alcohol in September 2020. He was found guilty following a trial at the High Court in Stirling. Cunningham was also told his name would remain on the sex offenders register indefinitely. Patricia Baillie, defending, said there was little she could say in mitigation because Cunningham continued to maintain his innocence. The jury at Cunningham’s trial heard that the father-of-one bought the schoolgirl and her friend’s alcohol before going with them to Darnley Park in the city’s historic “Top of the Town” area. The girl told investigators that she had felt ill at ease about Cunningham remaining with her and her friends because he was an adult. She told the jury: “He started saying ‘you’re fit’ and everything, ‘you’re so fit’. It made me really uncomfortable.” She said that she had told Cunningham her age but he “didn’t care”. The girl then told the court that Cunningham had raped her. She went back to her friends and burst into tears, later telling a relative she had been raped. Judge Lord Weir told Cunningham: “The jury, by returning a unanimous verdict, accepted that having bought her alcohol, you raped a young girl who was a total stranger to you in circumstances which on the evidence can only be described as disgraceful and inexcusable.”
