James Armour’s victims were aged between 17 and 19 (Picture: WTX Scotland News Agency)
A former King’s horseman who raped three teenage girls in the 1980s has been put behind bars for a decade.
James Armour’s victims, aged 17 to 19, were trainee instructors at a riding school centre in Scotland when they were attacked between 1983 and 1989.
Armour, 57, had stayed at the school while on leave from the Army. He was brought to justice after one of the victims reported what had happened to the charity Rape Crisis in 2019.
This woman, now 57, told a jury how she was working in a stable when Armour, who she had never met before, walked in, kicked her, pushed her against a wall and raped her.
He went on to rape her repeatedly over the next two years, leaving her feeling ‘sick’.
Armour’s second victim, now 59, woke up to Armour entering her bedroom before he put his hand over her mouth, told her to be silent and brutally raped her twice.
The 57-year-old denied the charges but he was brought to justice (Picture: Central Scotland News Agency)
Armour was a bombardier in the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery (Picture: Central Scotland News Agency)
She told the High Court in Stirling that she did not report the attack because she was a ‘scared, naive young girl’ at the start of her career.
‘In those days, there was not any help,’ she said. ‘You shut up. You got on with your life.’
The third victim, now 57, who was also raped in her bedroom, said she ‘shut it down all the time’ and did not think she would ever be believed.
Armour, from Congleton, Cheshire, denied the attacks and called the women ‘fantasists’.
But he was convicted and handed a 10-year sentence at Glasgow’s High Court yesterday. He was also put on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
Armour featured on the cover of Horse and Hound magazine in 2010 (Picture: Tim Bugler/Central Scotland News Agency)
Armour was jailed for 10 years and put on the sex offenders’ register (Picture: Police Scotland)
Speaking directly to the rapist, judge Lord Young said: ‘These rapes followed a pattern.
‘It is clear the women, despite the passage of many years, found it upsetting to repeat what you had done.
‘One had said, for years, she had kept to herself what happened as she felt no one would believe her. The jury did believe her and the evidence of the others.’
Armour had been a bombardier in the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery – a unit which takes part in Trooping the Colour and Horse Guards Parade – for nine years.
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At one point, Armour represented Britain as an Army showjumper, and even featured on the cover of Horse and Hound magazine in 2010.
Detective sergeant Lesley Couper said: ‘Armour is a predator who showed utter disregard for the impact on his victims.
‘I want to commend each victim in reporting these offences to police and for having the strength to stand up in court, making sure he was held accountable for his actions, and ultimately convicted.
‘I hope this sentence gives them some comfort as they try to move forward.’
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The rapist targeted young trainee instructors at a riding school in the 1980s.