Former River City actor sentenced to nine years for rape

A former actor on the BBC Scotland soap opera "River City" has been sentenced to nine years in prison for raping one woman and assaulting two others. Iain Robertson, 45, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, July 23, 2026, after being convicted last month of five offences against three women between 2004 and 2019.

Judge Lady Drummond imposed the nine-year custodial term along with an additional three-year supervision period. Robertson, who appeared via video link from prison, showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down. He was also added to the sex offenders register indefinitely and made subject to indefinite non-harassment orders.

Robertson, who played Stevie O'Hara on the long-running show, had denied all charges, which spanned from 2004 to 2020. He was removed from the soap when the allegations came to light. The court heard that he raped one woman on a single occasion between 2018 and 2019 and carried out a separate sexual assault on her. The two had met while working together on "River City" and had been friends. In pre-recorded testimony played to the jury, the woman stated she did not want anything sexual to happen and described feeling that...