August 2023

Man jailed for raping Amber Gibson months before brother killed her

A man who raped a teenager five months before she was murdered by her brother has been jailed for 10 years and six months.

Double rapist Jamie Starrs, 20, pounced on vulnerable Amber Gibson, aged 16, at his home in Bothwell, Lanarkshire, months before her death at the hands of her brother.

The 16-year-old was sexually assaulted and murdered in November 2021 by her brother Connor Gibson, who was convicted last month following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Starrs was found guilty of raping Amber following a trial at the High Court in Lanark in July and was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was also convicted of raping another teenager in Bothwell, South Lanarkshire in May 2021.

The 20-year-old was also found guilty of a breach of bail conditions, and of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

July 2023

Man jailed for raping Amber Gibson just months before she was allegedly raped and killed

A double rapist who targeted murder victim Amber Gibson is behind bars after evidence she gave police helped convict him.

Jamie Starrs, 20, pounced on the vulnerable 16-year-old at his home in Bothwell, Lanarkshire. Amber woke to find Starrs lying naked beside her but later reported him to police.

She was discovered dead five months after her ordeal of June 2021 but a statement she gave officers was crucial in bringing her rapist to justice. Starrs denied any wrongdoing and went on trial at the High Court in Lanark.

Jurors took two hours to convict him of raping Amber and also raping a second teenager just two weeks earlier. He was also found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice and breaching bail conditions following a five day trial.

Starrs had been released on bail from Hamilton Sheriff Court for the first attack on May 26 but went on to attack Amber on June 8. Detective Constable Ross McCaig, 36, told the jury he had taken a statement from Amber after the sickening assault had been reported.

She said she met Starrs, who was a stranger to her, and two others before heading to Bothwell.

Her statement said: “I was under the covers but when I went to get up I felt I didn’t have clothes on my bottom half, my trousers were next to me on top of the covers. I saw that the guy Jamie was asleep in the bed with me, it was light enough to say that it was him.

“He then got up from under the covers and he was completely naked and he put on a red tracksuit and pulled out a blue windbreaker style jacket and I managed to put my trousers on underneath the covers. I told Jamie I was leaving.”

 

Later in a homeless unit in Blantyre, Amber became ‘quiet’ when discussion turned to a TikTok user being falsely accused of rape and she revealed it had ‘happened to her’.

A teenage boy told staff and police were called in before Amber told them she had been raped by Starrs.

She told officers: “The reason I think I was raped was that I woke up in a bed with no clothes on my bottom half with a boy I had only met naked under the covers. I can’t remember hugging him or kissing him at all.”

The court heard police showed Amber, who was found dead in November 2021, a board of photographs and she identified Starrs.

Starrs’ other victim told the court she had been attacked while she was drunk and unable to give consent.

Judge Thomas Welsh KC deferred sentence on Starrs until August 8 at the High Court in Glasgow and remanded him in custody. Starrs, who is being held in Polmont, was placed on the sex offenders’ register.