A former doorman who attacked and raped women in Fife has been jailed for 15 years.
Stephen Whyte spent 14 years preying on his victims, subjecting them to horrendous abuse in a series of crimes.
A judge told the 47-year-old his offending – which included threatening and assaulting a pregnant woman – was “both grave and disturbing”.
Lord Armstrong said there was no appropriate alternative to a jail sentence and ordered the sex offender to be supervised for an additional five-year period.
He said: “On the evidence at your trial your conduct towards these women for the purposes of your own sexual gratification was violent, controlling and corrosive.”
The judge said victim impact statements confirmed the devastating and continuing long term consequences for women who suffered at Whyte’s hands.
Guilty of 17 offences
Whyte, who has never previously been sentenced to imprisonment, continues to deny responsibility for the substantive charges he faced at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Whyte, formerly of Malcolm Street, Dunfermline had denied a series of charges but was found guilty of 17 offences including three rape charges, four of indecent assault, abduction and assault and breach of the peace.
During his earliest offending in 2006 he threatened a woman while she was pregnant and threatened to kill her unborn child.
He repeatedly punched and kicked the woman – including kicking her in the stomach – and throttled her.
He also subjected her to repeated sex attacks and slapped and bit her during rapes.
She told the court she was raped when Whyte got angry, leaving her crying and on one occasion, bleeding.
She said: “He would slap me, sometimes my face, sometimes my breasts.
“He would bite me, my neck, my breasts.
“He would put his hand on my throat.
“It was tight, very tight.
“I was struggling to breathe.
“I was scared.”
Controlling attacks
He put an electrical cord around another woman’s neck and tightened it, burned her with a cigarette and hit her with a door and a shopping trolley.
During 2020 Whyte targeted another woman. throttling her, monitoring her mobile phone use, blocking her social media contacts and damaging her phone.
A fourth woman was subjected to abusive behaviour by him in 2020, including raping her and recording her having sex.
He prevented her contacting family and friends, controlled what she could eat, instructed her on the clothes to wear and monitored her movements.
Indefinite registration
Whyte committed the offences between February 2006 and August 2020 at addresses in Dunfermline, Cairneyhill and Kirkcaldy.
Defence solicitor advocate Gordon Martin, said: “I have to accept these are very serious charges.
“He is well aware the court will have no option other than to impose a custodial sentence.”
Lord Armstrong told Whyte that during the five-year extension period of his sentence, he could be returned to prison if he breaches conditions.
Whyte was placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
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