Serial rapist to be deported from Australia and sent back to Scotland

A Scots serial rapist who has spent almost his entire life in Australia is being deported after a huge political row.

Notorious predator Charles Davidson, 74, has lived in Australia since he was five years old after moving from his hometown of Glasgow with his family.

He was convicted of 59 offences against 25 different women and a child. But after he was given a visa to remain in Australia, the country’s prime minister Anthony Albanese was so outraged he is changing the law to send him back to Scotland.

Albanese said he is reversing Davidson’s right to remain as ­”community safety is paramount” and outweighs a non-citizen’s ties to Australia.

Davidson carried out the attacks at his chiropractic clinics over a 12-year period, beginning in 2003.

Such was the impact of his offending that one of his victims took to washing herself with methylated spirits in an bid to remove the uncleanliness she felt.

Another said Davidson’s crimes had sent her into a “horrific place of emotional and spiritual torment”.

She said: “I have now resigned to the fact that having a stable intimate ­relationship may be something that may not be an option for me.”

Some of the predator’s victims – who include a pregnant woman, a 15-year-old girl and a police officer – contemplated suicide.

Davidson was convicted of eight rapes, 48 sexual assaults and three convictions of indecent treatment of children under 16.

He was sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison.

In 2018, Davidson was jailed for five years and six months for sexually assaulting 10 clients and raping one.

In 2021, he was found guilty of 40 further offences, including seven counts of rape, against 16 more victims. He was given six years on top his sentence. The judge branded him a serious violent offender who was ­”calculated and ­predatory”.

There was outrage at moves to allow him to stay in Australia after his release, which could happen as early as this year.

As a result, the “Direction 99” act allowing foreign prisoners to remain in the country on release was scrapped. Last night there was concern over Davidson’s return to Scotland.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: “This rapist’s connections to Scotland appear to date back to the 1950s so it would be wrong for the Australian authorities to put him on a plane.

“They need to manage their own problems. We’ve already got plenty of criminals without importing more.”

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