Caithness Double Rapist Jailed For 10 Years

A double rapist was jailed for 10 years today after his brutality towards pregnant women endangered the lives of their unborn children.

Hugh McPhee carried out a catalogue of abuse against victims during which he assaulted expectant mothers.

But McPhee was sent to prison still maintaining that he did not commit the offences.

56-year-old McPhee kicked down a bathroom door as one woman took refuge there to escape from him and after it fell on top of her he jumped on the door.

The former cinema projectionist also repeatedly kicked and punched the woman, threw a cup of tea over her and rubbed her face in a sandwich.

He also slapped the pregnant woman on the face during an attack at a house in Wick, in Caithness, in 1986 and forced her to put her hand on a mantelpiece and struck her hand with a poker and kicked her on the abdomen.

McPhee also took a lit cigarette from the woman and pressed it against her arm and slapped her on the face and grabbed her by the hair.

He also dragged her onto a bed, pulled off the woman's clothes and raped her during her ordeal.

McPhee, of Thriepland Place, Spittal, in Caithness, had earlier denied a string of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was convicted of nine offences including assault, rape, indecent assault and indecent behaviour.

The offences against two women occurred between 1980 and 2002.

He told his trial that one of the women had struck him on the head with a poker and said: "She lifted the poker and said she was going to hit me."

McPhee denied he had taken a poker to the woman and when asked by his counsel Herbert Kerrigan QC: “Are you a hot-tempered individual?” he replied: “No.”

McPhee began abusing his second victim when she was an underage teenager and forced her to perform oral sex acts on him in Thurso.

He later raped the woman at houses in Wick.

McPhee also tried to push her in a river and attempted to push her over the handrail of a boat. He also tried to strangle her and burnt her arm by putting it against a hot cooker ring.

One woman told the court that until the police came to see her she had not thought about McPhee for years.

She said he had grabbed her throat and squeezed it until she could not breathe.

One witness told the court that he had heard McPhee lose his temper and saw one of his female victims with a black eye.

Mr Kerrigan told the court that McPhee's position was that he did not commit any of the offences.

The defence counsel said that the charges he was convicted on were grave.

Judge Nigel Morrison QC told McPhee: “You have been found guilty of a number of charges of physical and sexual abuse. There is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

He told McPhee that he would be placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

Detective Inspector Muriel Fuller of the Police Scotland Domestic Abuse Task Force within Licensing & Violence Reduction Division said: "This was a protracted police investigation carried out by the Domestic Abuse Task Force based in the North area of Police Scotland.

"From the outset of this enquiry it was clear that McPhee had targeted two vulnerable young women.

"Throughout their respective relationships with him he terrorised them.

"They lived a life of fear and dread. Both women describe him as controlling, violent, ‘threatening’ and ‘abusive’ so much so that neither wish to use his name preferring to refer to McPhee as ‘him’ or ‘he’.

"Police Scotland would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to these victims who came forward and assisted the police.

"We hope that McPhee’s conviction and sentence will go some way towards bringing closure for these ladies so that they can move on with their lives.

"This conviction demonstrates that the passage of time is no barrier to investigations, nor access to justice for victims.

"Police Scotland will endeavour to investigate all recent and historical reports of abuse.

"We hope that this case sends out a clear message that domestic abuse is unacceptable, Police Scotland will robustly investigate all domestic abuse related crimes to ensure that we keep people safe."