A jury was asked to convict a rape accused who allegedly killed his partners’ pets as a way of exerting control over his girlfriends.
Paul Hill is on trial at the High Court in Livingston accused of committing a string of historic sexual and violent domestic offences against former partners in Dundee and Aberdeen over a 22-year period.
A number of alleged victims gave evidence that Hill, 54, had beaten, strangled and raped each of them in a similar manner.
In his defence, Hill denied all the offences and claimed any sex had been consensual.
He specifically denied drowning a former partner’s pet parakeet, killing another’s tiny kitten, throwing a third girlfriend’s cat out of a window, and threatening to harm his own pet Alsatian, Fern, if a fourth partner refused to look after the dog when they split.
In his closing speech, advocate depute Bernard Abbott reminded jurors of the themes running through the trial, including that of Hill killing or threatening to harm pets to pressure ex-partners into complying with his wishes.
He also said women had spoken of the accused using similar behaviour towards them, such as verbally abusing them, pulling their hair, strangling them and sexually assaulting them.
Mr Abbott said the jury could conclude that the witnesses were making up their accounts as the defence claimed, or that they were “simply just telling the truth.”
He challenged the defence proposition that the alleged victims wouldn’t have stayed with someone who treated them in the way the Crown alleged.
He told the jury: “This is a case of someone involved in a relationship who’s being controlled. He cut off all contact, and after the incidents the accused said he’s sorry, it won’t happen again.
“Are domestically abusive relationships something that don’t exist in our society? Or are people continuing to live together when there is significant abuse within the relationship?”
He said jurors might think it rather odd for a number of ex-partners to come forward – separated by geography, separated by time, but all part of one course of conduct.
Hill’s defence counsel John McElroy urged the jury to consider why the women involved had not complained to police at the time of the offences and had only given statements when approached as part of a police investigation in early 2018.
He also stressed the lack of any medical records to prove that any of the women had been severely injured to the danger of life.
And he further highlighted differences between what some of the women had told the court in evidence compared to what they had said to police in earlier statements.
Hill, of Kings Park Drive, Ayr, faces 15 charges including five rape allegations involving four women, nine assaults on eight females – four of the assaults to danger of life – and one breach of the peace involving another woman.
The jury is now considering its verdict.
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