Murderer who escaped from Glasgow hospital raped two women

Steven Wilson had held the frightened couple hostage during the ten-year crime spree.

The 60-year-old has been in several prisons and psychiatric institutions since his conviction in 1988 for stabbing a man to death outside a London pub.

He was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Knightsbridge Crown Court.

In 2012, Wilson went into hiding after failing to return from unaccompanied leave at Leverndale Hospital in Glasgow.

When it became known that he had already been at large for two weeks before the public was warned about his dangerous past, it sparked a storm of outrage.

This only came to light when a Scottish Government official accidentally sent an email to the media talking about Wilson, who had previously deserted the State Hospital in Carstairs.

Wilson is now back in prison after being convicted by the High Court in Glasgow for these latest offences.

Between July 1999 and July 2000 he hunted the first woman.

This included a brutal rape in a high-rise building in Glasgow’s Knightswood district.

In addition to the sexual assault, Wilson also held a gun to the woman’s head, brandished a knife, locked her in the house and destroyed her cell phone.

The second woman was raped repeatedly, including between 2005 and 2009 in a van in an industrial area in the Springburn district.

Wilson also tortured this traumatized victim in an apartment in Renfrew.

She was beaten, slapped, threatened and held against her will.

Both women later courageously revealed to police how much they had suffered under Wilson.

He was found guilty on four counts, each involving assault, rape and kidnapping.

After the verdict, defence lawyer Iain McSporran said he would not request that Wilson be “subjected to a psychiatric evaluation”.

The KC said he intended to address the court on the question of how to deal with Wilson “to speak to a prison sentence” and “nothing else”.

Lord Fairley remanded Wilson in custody as the case was adjourned to 24 July in Edinburgh.