A depraved rapist from Perth and Kinross, Dane Lundie, has been convicted and remanded in custody following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh for a series of brutal sexual offences against four women. The 37-year-old, already a registered sex offender with a history of sex crimes, targeted petite and vulnerable females, subjecting them to rape, sexual assault, abduction, and life-endangering violence over a period spanning from 2013 to 2018.
Lundie's campaign of abuse began in January 2013 while he was living at an address in Collinson View, Perth. Between then and November 2014, he raped two women. One victim, aged 30 at the time, described in court how Lundie became increasingly aggressive and controlling. 'He got very, very aggressive. He got very controlling,' she testified. She recounted suffering a black eye and bruises from beatings, with Lundie pulling her hair until it fell out. After sexually assaulting her, he laughed about it while she cried, feeling disgusted and sad. In one terrifying incident, he held a knife to her throat, making her fear for her life, and used dressing gown ties to truss her up, threatening to set her legs on fire with a lit lighter held close to her skin. 'I thought he was going to kill me,' she said.
- The second Perth victim endured similar invasive sexual assaults, including an incident where Lundie performed a so-called 'drug search' on her in front of another woman, described by a witness as 'something disgusting' that the victim struggled to articulate. The assaulted woman pleaded for him to stop, but Lundie ignored her pleas.
In 2018, after moving to Mill Street in Kinross, Lundie resumed his offending against two more victims that year. One, now 23, revealed that Lundie supplied her with heroin, valium, cocaine, and crack cocaine, exploiting her unsettled life and lack of family support. He raped her while she slept, leaving her to wake up sore. 'He was into weird stuff, like the dark web,' she told the court, suspecting he viewed 'banned' sex videos. Lundie was controlling and manipulative, scaring her into submission. She believed he spiked her drinks with a yellowish powder, such as in hot chocolate, causing drowsiness, but did not confront him out of fear.
Lundie denied a string of charges during the trial but was found guilty of 12 offences, including rape, assault to danger of life, abduction, and threatening and abusive behaviour. When police searched his Kinross flat in June 2018, they recovered three samurai swords, alongside a cut throat razor and hunting knife used to menace his victims. Advocate depute Donald Davidson informed the court: 'The accused is currently a registered sex offender. The accused has already been assessed as presenting a high risk to females.' Judge Fiona Tait ordered a background report ahead of sentencing the following month, remanding Lundie in custody. This case, reported by The Courier, underscores the ongoing danger posed by repeat sex offenders like Lundie to vulnerable women in the community.