Crown evidence in the trial of a man accused of raping women in Fife has been brought to a close.
Judge Lord Fairley ordered the jury home from the High Court in Livingston after the Crown closed its case against Craig Mackay.
He told jurors he had to hear legal submissions from Mackay’s defence counsel Jim Keegan which would take some time to consider and adjourned the case until Tuesday morning.
Mackay, 33, is accused of assaulting and raping a 32-year-old woman to her injury and to the danger of her life at an address in the Leven area of Fife on an occasion between February and June 2015.
The charge alleges he repeatedly punched her on the head and body and uttered derogatory remarks before seizing her neck and compressing it, pinning her to a bed and raping her.
He also faces three allegations of raping another former partner, also now 32, at another address in the Leven area.
The Crown alleges the first rape happened between April 1 and October 1 2016.
The second allegation dates from March 31 2017, while the woman was sleeping and incapable of giving or withholding consent and the third on April 9 2017.
He was allegedly subject to two court bail orders in 2017.
Thought she would die
Mackay, currently a prisoner at Perth, denies all the charges and claims the women both consented to sex.
A first alleged victim gave evidence that she thought she was going to die when Mackay attacked and raped her.
The unemployed mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: “I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t swallow.”
The second woman, speaking through tears, told how Mackay grabbed her by the hair and raped her in one of her distressing ordeals.
She went to a neighbour, who gave evidence on Monday she was “curled up on the couch and crying”.
The neighbour told the High Court at Livingston: “She always looked the part, dressed immaculately.
“It was early in the morning, her hair and make-up weren’t done and she wasn’t even dressed – she was in nightwear and very distressed and upset.
“She just didn’t look like herself at all.
“She asked if she could have a shower which she never did before and she went upstairs.
“She was there for well over an hour and she told me she’d used every single product in the bathroom.”
The neighbour said the woman then gave her a “very graphic” description of being raped by the accused, who repeatedly made abusive phone calls to her as they spoke.
The trial, before Lord Fairley, continues.
