Man jailed for attack on Glasgow pensioner

A man’s has been jailed for three years for assaulting a Glasgow pensioner in her own home.

Published 26th Apr 2017

A man’s has been jailed for three years for assaulting a Glasgow pensioner in her own home.

Stephen McCaig, 43, attacked the 70-year-old after she invited him in to her house when he saw her at the door to her flats.

He tugged at her trousers to try and get them off, at her Craigend flat, and tried to pull her legs apart.

Furious McCaig then launched a terrifying attack on the woman who “pretended to be dead” so he would stop hitting her although eventually managed to escape to a neighbour.

When the police arrived McCaig had his underpants at his ankles and was screaming abuse.

The woman has since moved to sheltered housing as a result of her ordeal at the hands of McCaig.

After a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, McCaig from Paisley Road West, was convicted of the sexual assault on October 5, 2015.

McCaig pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner when police took him to hospital and spitting on a police officer when he was there.

Sheriff Paul Crozier jailed McCaig for three years with an extension of a year and a half when he will be monitored in the community after his release.

McCaig accepted the violent attack although claimed he had no recollection of the incident.

He told jurors: “I’m no brain of Britain but the facts speak for themselves.

“I know I went in to her house that morning, the police took me out.

“The objective data suggests it was me.”

But, he denied that there was any intention to sexually assault the woman.

McCaig told the court the neighbour he attacked “helped him” when he moved to the area around two years before the attack.

In evidence he said “She furnished half my house, she really helped me out.”

He claimed: “I’m absolutely horrified and ashamed at what’s happened.”

But jurors heard McCaig and his dog Charlie saw the female as she returned home from a night out after midnight and he went to her house.

He accepted her invitation to go in for a drink and claims that after he started drinking a vodka that she poured, cannot remember anything.

Initially she didn’t remember him touching her inappropriately that but accepted in evidence she later told the police “Stephen was pulling at my trousers and I was holding them at the front trying to keep them on.”

He then attacked her, pulled her hair and repeatedly punched the elderly woman on the face.

She suffered a suspected broken nose as well as bruising and swelling to her face and bruising on her inner thighs.

She told the jury she “pretended to be dead” in the hope McCaig wold stop reigning blows on her.

The court heard she fell asleep and when she woke she saw McCaig’s legs over hers and in distress, ran to a neighbour for help who contacted the police.

PC Elaine Lawrie was one of the officers who saw McCaig at the property.

She told the court: “His trousers and pants were at ankle level.”

The officer told how McCaig was shouting and swearing and verbally abusive towards police telling them “f*** off pigs”.

He kicked off when officers took him to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and London Road police office and spat at PC Ross Honeyman.