A rapist who hauled a sleeping victim from her bed to get him mince and tatties was placed behind bars for abusing and assaulting women and children.
James Cunningham, 56, was convicted of raping three women during a near-quarter-century of offending.
Judge Susan Craig KC told the first-time offender: “It is inevitable that you will receive a lengthy custodial sentence as a result of the jury’s conclusions.”
Cunningham, of Headwell Avenue, Dunfermline had denied the series of charges during a trial but was found guilty of three rapes, four assaults and two crimes of indecent conduct.
All the offences occurred in Fife between 1985 and August 2008.
‘He would just take what he wanted’
One woman, who was repeatedly attacked and raped by him, told the High Court in Edinburgh Cunningham was “quite abusive and controlling” with her.
She said: “He would call me names.
“He would hit me, punch me, strangle me.
“He pinned me up against a door.
“He threw things at me.”
The woman, now 57, said on one occasion she was sleeping in bed in the early hours of the morning.
“He punched me on the head and side and pulled me out the bed.”
She said she was told to go and get him mince and tatties.
The woman said she was repeatedly raped and told the court: “He would just force himself on me.
“He would just take what he wanted.”
Game called ‘nervous’
Cunningham began assaulting a child when the boy was aged four in 1985, slapped and kicked him and forced him to sleep on a floor, where he had been sick.
A second woman was assaulted and pinned to a sofa, slapped and punched, blindfolded and threatened.
He indecently assaulted and raped the woman, who was tied by her arms and legs to a bedframe.
A second boy was subjected to attacks from the age of four in 1993 and was slapped, punched and pushed.
The sex abuser also began preying on an underage teenage girl in 1996 and carried out indecent acts, before later raping her.
Another child victim was subjected to his unwanted attentions from the age of 13 and molested by him.
The victim, now 29, said as a child he had asked questions that made her feel “very uncomfortable”.
He also played a game with her called “nervous”, in which he would run his hand up the inside of her leg.
Cunningham was on bail until the jury returned its verdicts but was remanded in custody for the preparation of a background report.
He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and is due to be sentenced at the High Court in Livingston on March 2.
For the latest court cases across Tayside and Fife, join our Courts Facebook page.
