A bodybuilder has denied overpowering and raping two former partners.
Craig Mackay admitted to a jury his relationships with the two women who accused him of sexually assaulting them had not gone well.
He accepted there had been violence in both relationships and that he had “lifted his hands” to the women.
He confessed: “I was really volatile on drink and I come to blows quite a lot.
“I maybe lifted my hands (but) one thing I’m definitely not is a rapist.
“I hate people who do things like that.”
He was giving evidence in his own defence at the High Court at Livingston and categorically denied raping either of his alleged victims.
Apologies
Mackay claimed he had apologised for his behaviour after fights with his former partners.
He said: “Yeah, I put my hands up to that and I’m sorry if that is what I did.”
However, he claimed he had only struck one of the women after she had punched him half a dozen times.
He said: “I’ve never ever grabbed her by the throat.
“I’m quite sure about that. She’s lying.”
He went on: “When she was punching me… I swung my arm and caught her on the bottom of the jaw and she bounced her head off the wall.”
Accusers are ‘lying’
Asked why he had split up with the 32-year-old – who claims he raped her three times – he said: “We didn’t really get on as a couple.
“I think it was to do with an argument that ended with (her) taking the dog then our argument about money.”
Mackay refuted Advocate depute Christopher Macintosh’s suggestion he had put the women down and made degrading and derogatory comments to them.
He said both complainers had lied when they gave evidence about being assaulted and raped by him.
Referring to the other woman, he said: “She’s a beautiful girl as well.
“I’ve never tried to knock her down or tear her apart like that.”
The teenage daughter of one of the complainers gave evidence she had heard her “alcoholic” mother admit she had lied to police about the accused raping her.
The charges
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 made 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 on occasions between April 2016 and April 2017.
Mackay, currently a prisoner at Perth, denies all the charges and claims the women both consented to sex.
The trial, before Lord Fairley, continues.
