Alleged rapist ‘killed kitten’

AN alleged rapist has been accused of killing a woman’s kitten and trashing her flat after she broke up with him.

Paul Hill was said to have “destroyed” the Dundee property he shared with his former girlfriend.

The woman – who can’t be named for legal reasons – said she dumped him because of his alleged physical and sexual violence which left her with multiple broken bones and sleep problems.

She told a jury she had returned to her flat on Rosebank Place after spending the weekend with her parents and baby daughter.

She said: “There was paint all over the living room walls, furniture tipped over, my ornaments were broken. It was just a wreck

“I had a kitten. It was only a little wee kitten. He killed my kitten.”

The woman continued: “When we went back on Monday after the weekend a black bag had been tipped in the kitchen.

“(The kitten was) in the kitchen, in amongst all the debris and rubbish on the floor.

“When they saw that (my parents) said ‘Get back in the car we’re taking you back up the road’.”

The 32-year-old woman said she could recall a few times when Hill had attempted to have sex with her within the bedroom and she’d said “no”.

She told the High Court in Livingston: “He’s then grabbed me by the throat and started to strangle me. He then had sex with me. Personally I think he got off on it.

“His whole face – his eyes – would change. He was like a completely different person. His eyes would go really dark. He just looked really evil.”

Asked if she noticed anything else about the expression on his face she replied: “Anger. So much anger. He would smile in between looking really angry.

“It’s really hard to explain. It would go from smiling to being angry then he’d smile again.”

Under cross-examination by defence counsel John McElroy, the woman admitted giving confused accounts of alleged attacks claiming Hill broke six ribs, her nose and her jaw bone by punching and kicking her in the stomach while she was pregnant when the injuries were sustained in a separate event.

Hill, 54, a shop manager and former security guard from Ayr, faces a total of 24 charges including seven counts of rape and five counts of assault to danger of life.

The offences were allegedly committed in Aberdeen and Dundee between January 1987 and October 2015.

As well as a string of abduction charges, assaults and breaches of the peace, the prosecution also alleges Hill caused the kitten’s death by unknown means, threw another woman’s cat out of a window, drowned a pet parrot after threatening to kill it, and threatened to injure a dog.

He denies all the allegations and the trial, before Lord Mulholland, continues.