A double rapist from Fife who preyed on children in woodland attacks was jailed for eight years.
Paul MacKenzie used so much violence in his second attack the victim, a girl of 15, could have been killed, a court heard.
MacKenzie was only 18 when he raped his first victim, a boy, also aged 15.
He was 20 when he raped the girl, whom he choked until she lost consciousness before raping her on the ground.
The High Court in Stirling heard MacKenzie, now 21, had raped the 15 year-old boy, seizing him by the neck and injuring him, in “a wooded area” near the Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline in September 2019.
In March 2021 he raped the teenage girl in woods near Gilvenbank Park, Glenrothes, putting his hand over her mouth and repeatedly seizing and compressing her neck causing her to black out, before removing her clothing and forcing her to the ground.
MacKenzie, of Dunfermline appeared for sentence by video link from Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution, where he has been on remand since being arrested in September last year.
He pled guilty to both offences.
‘Society has an abhorrence of such conduct’
Judge Lord Armstrong told him he had used “serious violence”, in particular towards the girl.
“In the course of raping that young girl you used grave force, causing injuries to her mouth and neck consistent with manual strangulation.
“You caused her to lose consciousness to the potential danger to her life.
“These crimes were both disturbing and grave.
“Society has an abhorrence of such conduct.
“It is important that those who might be disposed to such crimes against children understand they will receive significant custodial penalties.”
Solicitor-advocate Gordon Martin, defending, said MacKenzie “accepted responsibility” for what he had done.
He said his client had been through “considerable adverse experiences” as a child, and had been taken into care when he was only five.
He said: “He is not the maturest of individuals.”
In addition to the eight-year jail term, MacKenzie was made subject to an extension of a further three years in the community, during which he can be recalled to prison if he re-offends.
He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
More detail on MacKenzie’s conviction is available here.
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