Fife man found guilty of subjecting victim to terrifying ordeal

A man who beat and threatened to kill a woman during a brief “toxic” relationship is facing a lengthy prison term after he was convicted of assaulting and raping her.

Stephen Graham’s victim said he subjected her to a terrifying eighthour ordeal as he kept her prisoner in his Markinch flat. 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 he demanded she unlock her mobile phone so he could look at her phone messages, then angrily accused her of cheating on him. He followed her into the bathroom and gave her a bloody nose with his fist before holding a kitchen knife less than an inch away from her chest.

She sobbed as she recalled how he repeatedly threatened to murder her as she stood shaking and crying in the bath. She said Graham, 29, then forced her into his bedroom, stripped her naked and raped her.

She managed to flee with his car keys after he fell asleep on top of her.

The woman’s grandmother, 71, relived the moment when her bruised and battered granddaughter turned up at her house and blurted out: “He’s raped me.”

The Glenrothes woman said the victim was “crying hysterically” and had blood all over her face.

During the trial at the High Court in Livingston, the victim described Graham as “possessive” and said he continually harassed her. She said: “If I didn’t answer his messages I’d get 20 calls. If I didn’t answer he’d turn up at my door at stupid o’clock.

“It was stalking, more like harassment. I needed him, at the same time I was scared of him.”

The jury took just over three hours to find Graham guilty of assaulting and raping the woman in February this year as well as choking and repeatedly punching her in January.

He was also convicted of two counts of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner towards police officers at his flat and at Levenmouth Police Station in September last year.

Judge Lord Summers called for a social work report before he passes sentence on October 19.