Dunblane survivor guilty of sex attack on pensioner

A SURVIVOR of the Dunblane massacre is facing jail for battering a 76-year-old churchgoer with intent to rape her.

Ryan Liddell was just five when he was shot in the arm and chest by gunman Thomas Hamilton, who went into his primary one gym class at Dunblane Primary School and murdered 16 of his classmates and his teacher.

Fifteen other children, including Liddell, another teacher, and a classroom assistant, survived.

But Liddell, now 20, was today found guilty of the violent sex attack on the grandmother-of-two, after barging into her groundfloor flat in Dunblane, Perthshire and saying he wanted sex before attacking her.

After a trial that ran to nine days, a jury of eight women and seven men at the High Court in Dumbarton took over four and a half hours to find Liddell, of Anderson Street, Dunblane, guilty by majority of assault with intent to rape and to the danger of life. He had denied the charge.

He was also found guilty, unanimously, of breaking a bail curfew.

Liddell, who worked as a short-order cook at a local Little Chef, had been stalking the streets of Dunblane at night when he spotted his victim's door open at 4.00 am on June 14th 2010.