The chief engineer of a super yacht was jailed for seven years after he raped a woman at a luxury Fife hotel.
Allan Stoddart attacked the woman at The Fairmont in St Andrews after returning from the sea.
Stoddart, 46, also raped her at an address in Glenrothes and attacked a second victim in his home town of Strathaven, in South Lanarkshire.
Stoddart had denied a series of offences during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Judge John Morris KC said the crimes had a “quite devastating effect” on the women and a substantial prison sentence was required.
Lies and vendetta claims
During his evidence Stoddart said his role at work required him to maintain the equipment on board the vessel, where he was in charge of “quite a large team of specialist engineers”.
He said he previously worked in diving vessels, container ships and cruise liners.
The court heard Stoddart preyed on his two victims while onshore after meeting them through online sites.
He accused them of lying in their evidence and said one had “a big vendetta” against him and sex with her was consensual.
He alleged the other woman sent him “multiple messages saying I would pay if she got upset”.
Stoddart said: “I have never, ever raped anybody in my life.”
He said: “I am not a man who becomes angry or frustrated.
“At work I manage a large team of people. I am level-headed.”
‘You are mentally destroying my head’
He said the trip to the St Andrews hotel was organised by the woman he was accused of raping after he had done a lengthy spell at sea and was “exhausted”.
He said they had sex but he later fell asleep and denied the woman’s account he pulled her to the floor and squeezed her neck before sexually assaulting her.
But the court heard Stoddart resorted to bullying, manipulation, threats and violence in his dealings with the women.
One said you did not say ‘no’ to Stoddart – you gave him what he wanted or there would be consequences.
The other woman told him: “You are mentally destroying my head.”
Advocate depute David Taylor said: “He took sex when he wanted it, even on occasions when (the women) were asleep.”
The prosecutor said the sexual attack at the hotel occurred after a violent assault and while the victim lay motionless.
Guilty
Stoddart was found guilty of assaulting the first woman on various occasions between October 2006 and November 2008 at a house in Glenrothes by touching her while she was asleep and raping her when she wakened.
He was also convicted of raping her on an occasion between September 1 and October 31 in 2007 at the Fairmont hotel.
He was also found guilty of two charges of assaulting and raping the second woman between March 1 and September 30 in 2020 at a house in Strathaven.
He will be on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
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