A masked intruder who raped an 83-year-old disabled widow after breaking into her Fife home has been jailed for 11 years.
Kyle McKenzie, 23, left his distressed victim in shock and pain and fled from the house in Glenrothes, only after the woman managed to activate an alarm.
An adviser from a community alarm team called the pensioner and the crying woman, who lived alone, told him: “Please send someone as quickly as you can, I’ve just been raped..”
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that during the attack the woman was struggling for breath and told McKenzie as she lay on the floor of her bedroom: “You are going to kill me.”
During the ordeal the woman remembered her alarm and got her attacker to help move her onto a bed where he continued to sexually assault her but from which she could reach the help device.
Lord Boyd of Duncansby told the rapist: “It is clear to me this was planned.
“You were dressed in black.
“You wore a balaclava and you were armed with a gardening tool.
“You subjected this woman to a sustained, violent and degrading sexual assault in the course of which you raped her.”
“It is difficult to put into words the revulsion that all right-thinking people will have for your conduct that night.”
Judge speaks of ‘inspiring’ woman
The court heard how McKenzie punched his victim on the head and body during her desperate struggle and caused her breathing difficulties.
Lord Boyd said: “Not unnaturally, this woman wonders what might have happened had she not activated the alarm.”
The judge said he was provided with two victim impact statements from the woman, now 84, which he said were particularly difficult to read as she described the searing pain she suffered in the attack and the psychological impact, including nightmares and flashbacks.
“She is a remarkably brave and inspiring lady. All of this stands in marked contrast to your brutality and cowardice.”
— Lord Boyd
Lord Boyd said: “But there is another side to this remarkable woman.
“She told me of the kindness she has received from those who cared for her.
“She is a remarkably brave and inspiring lady.
“All of this stands in marked contrast to your brutality and cowardice.”
Lord Boyd ordered McKenzie be kept under supervision for a further five years and told him if he had been over 25, the starting point for his jail term would have been 14 years “and may have been considerably longer”.
The judge acknowledged he had suffered adverse childhood experiences, including the suicide of his mother, but said he was “an intelligent young man”.
He told McKenzie: “You knew perfectly well what you were doing was wicked in the extreme.”
Late guilty plea
First offender McKenzie, who was living between addresses in Glenrothes and Falkirk, earlier admitted breaking into the woman’s home in the early hours of June 25 2020 and assaulting and raping the widow while brandishing a gardening tool and wearing rubber gloves.
He also pled guilty to committing a further break in at an elderly couple’s home in Glenrothes earlier that morning, during which he stole a decanter.
McKenzie’s guilty plea to the rape came late in proceedings and he had previously claimed that his victim consented to the sex.
The woman had to give evidence at a commission where she was cross examined by her attacker’s lawyers.
Police found accused with injuries
Following a police investigation into the attack McKenzie was arrested at the home of a known associate in Kirkcaldy, in Fife, on July 7 in 2020.
He had visible scratch marks to both sides of his neck.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard he told police en route to Kirkcaldy Police Station: “Allegation of rape, that’ll ruin me. Are the papers gonna know my name?”
Defence solicitor advocate Krista Johnston said that for a considerable time after the offence McKenzie was unable to accept the enormity of what he had done.
She said: “He accepts it now.
“His motivation to change is assessed as being genuine and sustained.”
McKenzie was placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
Police Scotland thanks public
Police Scotland’s senior investigating officer DI Darren Stewart said: “Kyle McKenzie is clearly a very dangerous, opportunistic individual.
“He carried out a particularly brutal attack on a vulnerable woman, submitting her to a harrowing ordeal in the one place in the world she should have been safest, her own home.
“He showed no contrition for his reprehensible behaviour when he was charged. However, he will now face the consequences of his actions having admitted his guilt.
“A large scale police investigation was carried out following this incident which ultimately identified McKenzie as being the individual responsible.
“I want to take the opportunity to thank the public and partner agencies for their assistance and information provided, particularly in providing support to the woman involved.
“Police Scotland treats all reports of sexual crime with the utmost professionalism and sensitivity in order to bring perpetrators of such crimes such as Kyle McKenzie to justice.”
