Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse
Derek McNee sentenced for offences against two women, including rape after drugging.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse
Photograph: Evening Standard (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Derek McNee, a former police officer, has been sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow for raping a woman after drugging her.
- He also admitted possession of an electronic stun gun found in his car.
- Police discovered four videos on his mobile phone depicting the offences.
- McNee left Police Scotland in 2016 and subsequently worked as a dog groomer.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 8 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 3 of the 11 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
78/100
Craft
87/100
Hype
15/100
11 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
None of the 8 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Derek McNee, 42, has been sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow for offences against two women. He pleaded guilty to raping one woman on multiple occasions after administering drugs that rendered her unconscious. He also admitted engaging in a course of abusive behaviour towards a second woman over a five-year period. McNee further pleaded guilty to possessing an electronic stun gun hidden in his car. Police found four videos on his mobile phone showing the offences. He left Police Scotland in 2016 and became a dog groomer in Paisley.
Sentence length disagreement
The Evening Standard reports that Derek McNee was sentenced to seven years in prison. The Herald Scotland reports his sentence as eight-and-a-half years in prison.
What the coverage left out
None of the reports printed below mention the specific date of the sentencing at the High Court in Glasgow, only that it occurred on a Monday. The specific details of the abusive behaviour towards the second woman are not elaborated upon in any of the reports.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 5 times, most recently on 3 Nov 2026, 10:30, and will add the sides that appear.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
Derek McNee was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow <i>(Image: Colin Mearns)</i>
The Herald Scotland — embedded from source
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
3 rated outlets
- The left-rated reports from The Independent and The Independent (US) focused on the guilty plea and the sentencing of Derek McNee for drugging and raping a woman. The Herald Scotland also highlighted the rape and a campaign of domestic abuse, quoting the Procurator Fiscal on the profound impact of the offences on both victims and the courage of women reporting their experiences. The Herald Scotland also included comments from Detective Inspector Mairi MacDonald commending the victims' courage and stating Police Scotland's intolerance for violence and sexual abuse.
Centre
5 rated outlets
- Centre-rated reports from the BBC, Glasgow Live, Glasgow Times, GlasgowWorld, and the Evening Standard highlighted that Derek McNee was a former police officer jailed for rape and abuse. Several reports specified that he filmed himself raping a sleeping woman, with the BBC and Glasgow Times using this detail in their headlines. The GlasgowLive and GlasgowWorld reports mentioned he subjected two women to 'horrific abuse' and was jailed for seven years. The Evening Standard also reported the seven-year sentence and detailed the possession of an electronic stun gun.
Right
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse?
- Of the 8 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 38% are rated left, 62% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 11. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 8 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse biased?
- Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse is one event reported by 11 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Ex-officer jailed for rape and abuse?
- 11 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What was Derek McNee sentenced for?
- Derek McNee was sentenced for raping a woman after drugging her and for engaging in a course of abusive behaviour towards a second woman over five years. He also pleaded guilty to possessing an electronic stun gun.
- How long was Derek McNee jailed for?
- The Evening Standard reported his sentence as seven years, while The Herald Scotland reported it as eight-and-a-half years. Both reports state he will also serve an additional monitoring period and be added to the sex offenders register indefinitely.
- What evidence did police find?
- Police discovered four videos on Derek McNee's mobile phone that showed the offences. An electronic stun gun was also found hidden in his car.
Read it at the source
11 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
3- Former police officer jailed after pleading guilty to drugging and raping woman (opens The Independent (US) in a new tab)
The Independent (US) — is The Independent (US) biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former police officer jailed after pleading guilty to drugging and raping woman (opens The Independent in a new tab)
The Independent — is The Independent biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former police officer jailed for rape and campaign of domestic abuse (opens The Herald Scotland in a new tab)
The Herald Scotland — is The Herald Scotland biased? Our profile of this outlet
Centre
5- Former Glasgow cop who subjected two women to 'horrific abuse' jailed for seven years (opens GlasgowWorld in a new tab)
GlasgowWorld — is GlasgowWorld biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former police officer jailed for seven years for drugging and raping woman (opens Evening Standard in a new tab)
Evening Standard — is Evening Standard biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former Glasgow cop who raped woman and abused another jailed (opens Glasgow Live in a new tab)
Glasgow Live — is Glasgow Live biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Ex-police officer who filmed himself raping sleeping woman JAILED (opens Glasgow Times in a new tab)
Glasgow Times — is Glasgow Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former police officer who raped sleeping woman jailed (opens BBC News in a new tab)
Right
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Not rated
3- Former police officer jailed for seven years for sexual offences (opens deadlinenews.co.uk in a new tab)
deadlinenews.co.uk — is deadlinenews.co.uk biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former police officer jailed for seven years for raping sleeping woman (opens Renfrewshire News in a new tab)
Renfrewshire News — is Renfrewshire News biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former police officer who filmed himself raping sleeping woman jailed (opens Stv in a new tab)
How did this read?
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