Conman rapist warned he faces long jail term

A MAN who lured a woman to Scotland with the offer of a job – then raped her in a lay-by feet from a busy road just hours after picking her up at the airport – has been warned he faces a lengthy jail term.

Indulus Lukstins attacked the 21-year-old Latvian woman at the side of the A9 south of Inverness in January this year.

The woman told the High Court in Dundee how she had lived in England for around two years, before returning to her native country after falling pregnant. But after suffering a miscarriage she began to look for work again in the UK, planning to take a job while continuing to study psychology.

She told how she spotted an advert for a nanny to a Russian family based in Glasgow on a Latvian jobs website. She sent a CV and pictures to the advertiser and was told a few days later she had been given the job by a man who identified himself as “Ivars”.

When she arrived at Prestwick Airport on 15 January she was picked up by Lukstins, who took her to his car where he put an address in Inverness into his satellite navigation system.

She said they drove for two hours before stopping in a lay-by, only driving off again after sitting for several hours. They then stopped again around an hour later in another lay-by.

The woman then described the attack carried out by Lukstins. He held a knife to her neck before sexually assaulting her. She was then driven to a Tesco superstore in Inverness where she alerted a security guard to the attack and called police.

Lukstins, 50, a prisoner at HMP Inverness, who previously lived in St Ninian’s Road, Nairn, Inverness-shire, denied rape but the jury found him guilty after a six-day trial. Judge Lady Clark of Calton yesterday placed Lukstins on the sex offenders register and remanded him in custody. He will be sentenced on 21 October.

She said: “I will require a social work report including a risk assessment so I can consider the possibility of an extended sentence.”