A sex predator who raped a woman after giving her a massage has been jailed for five years.
Lee Rigby, 53, from Fife, offered to ease his victim’s aches and pains before attacking her in her home.
Judge Norman McFadyen acknowledged Rigby had not previously been convicted of a sexual offence but because of the gravity of the attack, only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He placed Rigby, of Castle Wynd, Kinghorn, on the Sex Offenders Register for an indeterminate period.
Victim forced to give evidence in trial
Rigby had denied raping the woman on October 28 or 29 at a house in Glenrothes but was found guilty by majority verdict after a trial at the High Court in Livingston.
At his sentencing hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday, defence counsel Rosalyn McTaggart said her client continues to maintain his innocence but was aware he would be jailed.
She said he had been assessed in a background report as posing a moderate risk and continues to have the support of family and friends.
The victim told jurors at Rigby’s trial she had lain down on her stomach for Rigby to give her a deep massage as she tried to rekindle their short relationship.
She said: “He was actually just giving me a really nice massage but his hands were trying to wander round to my breasts.”
The woman said she had told Rigby anything sexual to occur was completely “off the cards”.
The 46-year-old said Rigby was behind her when he suddenly lifted her up by the hips and started raping her.
Lifelong pain
She said she begged him to stop during the five-minute ordeal.
“I was still telling him ‘No, no, please stop. It’s sore’.
“When somebody doesn’t want something, you don’t do it.
“I just dissociated myself. (I thought) It’s not going to stop so I’ll just take myself somewhere until it’s over.
“I took myself off into the happy place I used to go as a kid when something was happening to me.”
She added she told Rigby afterwards: “It’s going to hurt for the rest of my life.
“You’ve just violated me in my supposed-to-be-forever home.”
She told the court that afterwards, she lay in a foetal position sobbing.
Accused’s evidence rejected
Rigby told his trial they had been in a disagreement.
“It ended with me pushing her out after she said she was going to get me done with rape, which I didn’t do, obviously.”
He claimed he had never heard her saying during sex that it was sore, adding: “I know the difference between yes and no.
“It’s just the way I am. I would have stopped right away.”
The jury returned a majority verdict, finding Rigby guilty of rape.
An allegation was deleted that Rigby had touched the woman’s breasts before raping her and an aggravation that the offence involved abuse of his partner or ex-partner.
