Skipper imprisoned for sex abuse of ‘comatose’ woman

● Man filmed his assaults on unconscious victim

A fishing skipper who filmed a catalogue of sex abuse he inflicted on a vulnerable woman was jailed for nine years yesterday.

Marc Ronald’s victim found the footage of the sex attacks on her on his computer. The video was shown to a jury who convicted him of two rapes and three charges of sexual assault.

Ronald shot the videos and added his own derisive commentary as he carried out the assaults on the woman when she was either asleep or intoxicated and unconscious and stored them on his laptop.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “It is clear from the evidence in the case that you took advantage of the victim for your own sexual gratification.”

Lord Pentland said Ronald’s behaviour to the woman had been “degrading and humiliating” and added: “You treated her as a mere sexual object.”

The judge said the victim deserved great credit for her bravery and determination in seeing her abuser brought to justice.

During the three sexual assaults Ronald committed he dressed the woman in a nappy or plastic underwear. He filmed himself carrying out four of the sex crimes.

An allegation that Ronald had given the women valium during the attacks was deleted by the jury.

The sex predator claimed that the woman was aware of what was going on and was acting out fantasy role playing.

But prosecutor Bernie Ablett referred jurors to one scene where they woman slipped off a couch and landed on the floor and said: “I suggest she falls like a corpse.”

The victim told the court that she was keen to access Ronald’s laptop, which he would not let her near, and managed to “hack the password” which was the name of the fishing skipper’s boat.

Ronald, 45, of Dunvegan, on Skye, had denied raping and sexually assaulting the woman at an address in Orkney and at a farm cottage near Dingwall, in Ross-shire, between 4 March 2011 and 7 February in 2013 while she was intoxicated, asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent.

He maintained that he and the woman were engaged in consensual sexual role playing. But the jury rejected his claims.

The skipper-owner of a fishing boat, who had a shellfish export business, said he had taken the videos so they could be played back and watched again.