A serial abuser who brutalised and raped women in Fife has been jailed for eight and a half years and placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
Phillip Wight, 33, attacked five women, raping two of them, in a catalogue of offending that spanned 17 years.
His first victim was a teenager.
He shouted and swore at her and hit and kicked her at houses in Glenrothes – and on a bus – from September 2002 when she was aged 15, until 2006.
Within three years he targeted a second woman.
She was raped, dragged by the hair, grabbed by the neck, struck on the head and body and pushed against a wall at addresses in Glenrothes and Burntisland.
A third woman was also attacked and repeatedly struck on the head by Wight at a house in Kirkcaldy in 2013.
On Christmas day the following year he punched another woman in the face at an address in Glenrothes.
He attacked his final victim in 2019, hitting her on the head and raping her at another house in Glenrothes.
‘Serious and enduring consequences’
Unemployed Wight had denied a string of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was convicted of committing 10 crimes – six assaults and four rapes.
A judge told him: “It is clear you have caused very considerable suffering to your victims, which has had serious and enduring consequences for them.”
Lord Beckett said he was convicted of serious crimes of rape and assault, including one attack in which he compressed a woman’s neck.
The judge ordered Wight be supervised for a further six and a half years and warned if he failed to comply with the conditions of his licence during that period he could be returned to prison.
‘He was just an angry man’
One woman, aged 41, told the court: “He used to become angry and violent.
“He was just an angry man.
“On one occasion he took my face and pulled it down a gravel wall.
“He would just degrade me and call me names.
“I was a whore, I was a slut.”
The woman said at one stage she got a new sofa for the living room at her home but then gave it away.
Advocate depute Leanne McQuillan asked her why she did that and she replied: “Because he pinned me down on it and had sex with me.”
Defence counsel Jonathan Crowe said Wight accepted he has had serious problems with alcohol and drugs.
He added: “He advises that he is ashamed of the way he has acted at times.”
Sentence welcomed
Procurator Fiscal for High Court Sexual Offences Fraser Gibson said: “Phillip Wight inflicted brutal and terrifying attacks on five women over the course of nearly two decades.
“While some of these crimes occurred many years ago, diligent work by police and our expert prosecutors made it possible for him to be brought to justice today.
“His victims showed great bravery during the prosecution process and I hope the sentence imposed today provides some resolution for them.”
