Luke Ford: Actor who claimed he was 'Brad Pitt body double' jailed for rapes - including secretly not using condom
18 December 2024, 08:18 | Updated: 18 December 2024, 11:21
An actor - who claimed he stood in as a body double for Brad Pitt - has been jailed for 16 years for a string of sex attacks, including rape for secretly not using a condom during sex.
The prosecution is believed to be the first in Scotland for "stealthing" - where a condom is removed or not used without a partner's knowledge.
Luke Ford, 35, denied any wrongdoing but was last year found guilty of a spate of offences following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
He was convicted of 18 charges of abusing seven female partners, including raping five of them and attempting to rape another.
Jurors heard how he terrorised his victims over a 12-year period, subjecting them to physical, mental and sexual abuse.
Ford was said to be a jobbing actor and model who appeared in a pop video by Deacon Blue and claimed he was a stand-in for Brad Pitt on the 2013 film World War Z, part of which was shot in Glasgow.
His trial heard how he preyed on women on dating apps, first showering them with affection before financially exploiting, controlling and abusing them.
'I felt completely violated'
In the "stealthing" case, Ford was said to have met a female psychologist via Tinder in 2017 and after a few dates they discussed having sex.
The woman messaged Ford stipulating that he use protection because she did not want to risk pregnancy, to which he reportedly replied: "Good idea."
While in bed, the woman handed him a condom but he later admitted that he had not used it.
She told the court: "I was shocked and upset. I would not have had sex with him without a condom. I asked him to leave. I felt completely violated."
When she confronted him the next day with the concern that she could be pregnant, he dismissed her as "paranoid", saying that it was "no big deal" and to take the morning-after pill.
He reportedly texted: "Just get the pill and if you are pregnant get rid of it."
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Ford was convicted of a number of assaults, including strangling, smashing one partner's head off a car window, and slapping another hard across the face.
He also took intimate videos and photographs of partners, often covertly, and threatened to show them to their employers and family if they did not do as he wished.
Ford, originally of Stirling, was sentenced by Lord Summers at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
He was handed a 21-year extended sentence, with 16 years in jail and five years on licence once released back into the community.
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