Dominic Devine (c.1957 – 6 August 2023) was a British convicted sex offender and serial rapist. Devine, known as the Beast of Ibrox, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for attacks against five women in the Ibrox area of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, including four rapes. He was the third person in Scottish history to be sentenced to life imprisonment for rape.

Crimes

Devine was linked to the rapes of eight women in Ibrox between 1979 and 1987, although police suspected that he may have had other victims who were too afraid to come forward. He often ensured that large periods of time had passed between attacks in order to lull victims into a false sense of security. His attacks were characterised by extreme violence, with Devine frequently beating his victims with a hammer to subdue them. During one undated period, Devine was convicted and imprisoned for the attempted rape of his sister-in-law, but his attacks resumed after his release from prison. Devine's final attack took place in early 1987, when he abducted a young woman from a bus stop in Shieldhall Road, dragged her to a railway embankment and raped her for several hours before trying to strangle her. Although badly injured and suffering from

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...

, the woman survived the attack and managed to flag down a police car, which drove her to the nearby

Southern General Hospital The Southern General Hospital (SGH) was a large teaching hospital with an acute operational bed complement of approximately 900 beds. The hospital was located in Linthouse in the south west of Glasgow, Scotland. All facilities and services have ...

. During the drive, the victim provided a description of her attacker, saying that he was about 30 and had a beard. However, in a later interview she made no mention of his having a beard. Based on her description, a

facial composite A facial composite is a graphical representation of one or more eyewitnesses' memories of a face, as recorded by a composite artist. Facial composites are used mainly by police in their investigation of (usually serious) crimes. These images a ...

was made depicting the suspect without a beard. Police had not initially linked Devine's attacks to the same perpetrator. After the final assault, the head of the Govan CID noticed similarities between the incidents and ordered a review of all unsolved rapes since 1979. This resulted in the discovery of seven other women who described being assaulted by a man resembling Devine. After concluding that all eight attacks were perpetrated by a serial rapist, the police appealed for information on the so-called "Beast of Ibrox". The 31-year-old Devine was arrested after multiple people reported that he matched the rapist's description. Although the most recent victim could not identify him, as he had shaved off his beard after raping her to avoid recognition, another woman whom he had raped the previous year was able to pick him out of a

police lineup A police lineup (in American English) or identity parade (in British English) is a process by which a crime victim or witness's putative identification of a suspect is confirmed to a level that can count as evidence at trial. The suspect, along ...

. Devine was charged with the woman's rape and remanded in custody. Over the next few days, Devine was identified by other victims and himself confessed to several of the rapes, including the 1987 attack. Later that year, Devine appeared at Edinburgh High Court for trial. He was found guilty of four counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, the third time in Scottish history that the sentence was applied to somebody who had been convicted of rape.

Imprisonment

Devine served portions of his sentence at several different prisons. During his imprisonment he was reportedly friendly with infamous Scottish murderer

Angus Sinclair The World's End Murders is the colloquial name given to the murder of two girls, Christine Eadie, 17, and Helen Scott, 17, in Edinburgh, in October 1977. The case is so named because both victims were last seen alive leaving The World's End pub ...

. Initially, Devine was held at

Saughton Prison HMP Edinburgh is located in the west of Edinburgh on the main A71, in an area now known as Stenhouse, and, although never named as such, has commonly been known as Saughton Prison from the old name for the general area. The prison is situat ...

in Edinburgh. After becoming eligible for early release, Devine was controversially given a work placement outside the prison, and was allowed to go free five days a week to help him prepare for life outside prison in the event of his being paroled as part of the "Training for Freedom" program. This led to public anger that dangerous prisoners like Devine were being allowed to leave prison. However, in 2005 an investigation by the '' Sunday Mail'' found that Devine and fellow inmate Billy Stewart were exploiting the work release program to smuggle drugs into the prison, and possessed contraband mobile phones that they used to organise drug deals. The two men were removed from the Training for Freedom program but did not face criminal charges. By 2009, Devine had been transferred to HM Prison Shotts. He was again entered into the Training for Freedom program, having served 23 years of his life sentence, but was once again removed from the program after being caught smuggling drugs into the prison and was transferred to another facility. Although it was reported in 2017 that Devine had been released, he was in fact still imprisoned at

HMP Barlinnie HM Prison Barlinnie is the largest prison in Scotland. It is operated by the Scottish Prison Service and is located in the residential suburb of Riddrie, in the northeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It is informally known locally as The Big Hoose, ...

as of 2023. He died in his cell on 6 August 2023; the

Scottish Prison Service The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) () is an executive agency of the Scottish Government tasked with managing prisons and Young Offender Institutions. The Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, currently Teresa Medhurst, is responsible ...

confirmed his death on 9 August and announced that it planned to hold a

fatal accident inquiry A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) is a Scottish judicial process which investigates and determines the circumstances of some deaths occurring in Scotland. Until 2009, they did not apply to any deaths occurring in other jurisdictions, when the Coron ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devine, Dominic 1950s births 2023 deaths 20th-century Scottish criminals British people convicted of attempted murder British people convicted of attempted rape Criminals from Glasgow Rape in Scotland Scottish people who died in prison custody Scottish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Scottish people convicted of rape Year of birth uncertain