Tagged rapist Alexander Gallagher jailed for new attack
A convicted rapist who was found guilty of raping another woman while wearing an electronic tag has been given a lifelong restriction order.
Alexander Gallagher, 41, attacked his 34-year-old victim at her home in Glasgow on 23 March 2013.
He had been tagged days earlier after breaching bail conditions following his release on licence in February 2013 from a 10-year jail term for rape.
Gallagher was told he must serve a minimum of five years in prison.
He was also placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.
Jailing him at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lady Wolffe told Gallagher: "You were convicted by the jury of a charge of assaulting, threatening and repeatedly raping a woman.
"The evidence disclosed an exceptionally nasty, repeated and prolonged attack upon a victim in her own flat."
The judge pointed out that the effect on the victim had been "deeply traumatising".
Lady Wolffe said Gallagher had an extensive record of previous convictions which revealed an increasing propensity for violence and sexual violence.
She said most concerning was his previous conviction in the high court for rape which had resulted in a 10-year prison term.
"I am in doubt that you present a serious risk of danger to the safety of the community," she told him.
Lady Wolffe said Gallagher had been assessed as posing a high risk to the safety of the public and passed an Order for Lifelong Restriction, with a minimum jail term of five years, backdated to November 2013.
The judge told him: "You will be released only when the Parole Board considers it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you be held in prison."
Gallagher was convicted following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
The trial heard how he had been at the victim's flat in Glasgow's south side with another man.
Battered and bruised
Gallagher insisted they were "having a jolly" listening to music before the woman went to bed.
He told the jury he later joined her in the bedroom before claiming they became "intimate".
However, the victim told a different story and recalled how Gallagher forced her to have sex - and then stuffed a bag in her mouth to try and silence her screams.
Her terrifying ordeal also involved her being punched in the face, flung around the room and assaulted with a torch.
She was left battered and bruised as Gallagher later walked out of the flat.
Gallagher denied the rape charge at the trial and claimed the woman willingly had sex with him.
He went on to claim he hit the woman after they had sex - but only because she had assaulted him during a row over a phone.
After the guilty verdict, the jury were told of Gallagher's criminal past.
He was locked up for five years for assault and robbery in 1997.
Just 10 days after being freed early in 2000, Gallagher then raped a mother-of-two as she sat in her car in Stirling.
He was jailed for 10 years, but also ordered to serve the remainder of his five year jail-term from the previous offence.