Double Fraserburgh rapist faked gran's death to fly home early from offshore and continue vicious abuse campaign

Press and Journal

3 days ago

An oil worker from Fraserburgh has been found guilty of two rapes as well as an almost 40-year campaign of domestic abuse against four different women.
Dennis Forrest, 60, faced a host of charges at the High Court in Aberdeen relating to incidents spanning the years 1985 to 2022.
It included assaulting them physically, demanding his victims cut off contact with other people and, for one woman, sending her employer an intimate photograph in an attempt to get her sacked.
In another disturbing example of Forrest's controlling behaviour, the court was told how he lied to bosses while offshore by telling them his grandmother had died so he could get helicoptered home to confront a woman because he learned she had been seeing family members behind his back.
Forrest, who has worked as a drill supervisor in locations including central and east Asia, will now face sentencing for his crimes in July.
The court heard from each of his female victims throughout the course of the five-trial, which concluded on Wednesday.
One, who Forrest met when his family ran Fraserburgh's Kenyan pub on Gallowhill Road in the 1980s, said she was raped in the bar and often had sex against her will.
She told the jury she was also beaten by Forrest over his jealousy towards other men and when he found out she was contacting her own family.
Describing how he pretended that his grandmother died to be flown home from an oil rig, she said: 'I got to see my mam, my dad and my brothers when he was offshore. If he found out, I got a hiding. He'd batter me.
'It was from the second day I was going with him. He kept on telling me he'd kill my family if I left him.'
Another woman gave evidence saying she was frequently pressured into having sex with Forrest in the 1990s.
She said: 'He just kept asking me to have sex. It just got to the point where he wore me down. It was completely under duress – there was no affection or anything like that in the actual process. I just lay there.'
Forrest also left several disgusting voicemails to the woman when she would not answer the telephone.
She described them as 'really nasty'.
She reported him to the police at the time, but it was not until 2022 when the police moved forward with gathering evidence against Forrest that they got back in touch with her.
'He had said that he was going to get a druggie to break every bone in mine and the girls' bodies and then set fire to the flat,' she said.
'The police at that time weren't really interested. One police officer suggested it was my fault he left those voicemails in the first place.'
Forrest would be found guilty of assaulting and raping her.
A third woman, who Forrest met while working abroad, moved to his Fraserburgh home in 2003.
She said she was never raped by him, but he was found guilty of physically assaulting her.
She said the attack happened when she caught him downloading movies she believed to be pornography, describing the titles as 'teenage sex' and 'animal porn'.
Forrest would deny the films were porn, telling the jury the woman was simply confused by the titles of the films he was actually trying to get, namely the Will Smith superhero action movie Hancock and George Orwell's satirical Animal Farm.
Another victim said she got police involved when he sent an intimate picture of her to her employer.
He would be found guilty of behaving abusively against her.
She described Forrest as being controlling, demanding pictures of her underwear – to make sure she was wearing underwear.
He also demanded evidence of her location 'day by day, hour by hour' when she went abroad for a family birthday.
When their relationship ended, he even sent an email to her employers in an attempt to have her sacked.
The message, which also included a table of his ex's expenses, made claims about her background and her family, taking aim at her child whom he believed she was trying to get employment within the same company.
Forrest chose to give evidence in his own defence as the trial headed to its conclusion.
In it, he denied raping anyone, saying: 'I've no reason to lie.'
Both the Crown and his own defence counsel questioned him on his police interview, which he said he had given while not in a good frame of mind, just five days before the death of his mother.
During that interview, he told constables he was 'very approachable' and a 'pleasant guy'.
'Happy most of the time,' he added. 'Very laid back. Ice cool sometimes, almost too laid back.'
Asked about getting consent from women, he replied: 'I never make the first move, I'm quite shy that way. I always let the opposite make the first move.'
He would add, when confronted about the image he sent to his partner's boss: 'I was chasing my money and how can you hire people who's got a background?
'How can you hire people who steal money from people?'
Judge Buchanan remanded Forrest after the verdict from the jury.
Deferring his sentencing until background reports were prepared on Forrest, he warned him that it was 'inevitable' that he would be going to prison for a considerable time.
'You have been convicted by the jury of a large number of charges, some significantly more serious than others,' the judge said.
'It is, of course, rape that has brought you here before the High Court of the judiciary. It is inevitable that in due course a significant sentence of imprisonment will be imposed.'
Forrest, of Cairnhill Drive, will also be subject to the sex offenders notification requirement.