Ailands Aleksanders

Four Latvian men, including Ailands Aleksanders, were convicted at the High Court in Glasgow for the grooming and sexual abuse of a vulnerable 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2015. The group treated the girl as a sex object, plying her with alcohol and cannabis, buying her lingerie, and ultimately raping her on multiple occasions.

The offences occurred in June and July 2015 in Glasgow. On 3 June 2015, at a flat in Burnfield Road, the victim attended a birthday party where she consumed vodka and Mad Dog, becoming extremely drunk. She later testified that she was intoxicated and falling in and out of sleep when Aleksanders and his co-accused Aivars Hauberts raped her. The victim described how her clothes were removed and she was too drunk to resist, with three or four people present in the room.

Aleksanders, aged 22 at the time of sentencing, was found guilty of rape despite denying the charges. His defence QC, Tony Graham, stated that Aleksanders continued to deny any sexual contact with the complainant. Judge Lord Armstrong addressed the accused, stating: "Aivars Hauberts, Ailands Aleksanders and Ludvigs Rudevics you stand convicted of raping this young girl. That is a grave crime from which all young girls and women should be protected." Aleksanders was sentenced to four years in prison and placed on the sex offenders' register.

The victim, now 19 and living in Glasgow, was introduced to the men by a schoolfriend. Initially polite, the men soon began speaking sexually about her body. She explained her continued association with them stemmed from the attention and access to drugs and alcohol she received, saying: "It was the only attention I was getting in my life. They were nice to me and they were making me feel good." The case was prosecuted by Bernard Ablett, with the sentencing occurring on 17 March 2020.