Rape trial hears relationship was ‘toxic’ from start

A woman’s five-month relationship with a rapist accused was “toxic from day one”, a jury heard on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old, who claims Stephen Graham violently beat her several times and raped her after making her a prisoner in his flat, said things were good when they first got together. Then, she said it was all “mental games” and claimed Graham continually harassed her and accused her of cheating.

Giving evidence at the High Court in Livingston, the woman claimed she had been putting something in the bin outside her flat and remembered nothing until she woke up on Graham’s sofa with a lump on the back of her head. She said Graham had locked her in his flat for eight hours and “tortured” her by punching her on the face and threatening to kill her with a kitchen knife.

Under cross-examination she admitted she had not told police about the lump on her head when they interviewed her.

Graham, 29, a prisoner at HMP Perth, is charged with a total of nine offences, including threatening to kill the woman and trying to strike her with a knife before holding her down and raping her in February.

He is alleged to have assaulted her by grabbing her by the throat, threatening her, smashing her mobile and challenging police to fight at an address in Markinch on September 22 2017. He is also charged with challenging police to fight, trying to seize officers and obstructing them by refusing to leave his cell at Levenmouth Police Station the same day.

He is further charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by inducing his alleged victim to change her statement and withdraw charges against him by threatening to set fire to her flat last year and compressing her throat and punching her in January this year.

Graham denies the charges and has lodged a special defence of alibi to the January assault allegation.

The trial, before Lord Summers, continues.