Intruder could face life after raping pensioner

An armed intruder who raped an elderly widow in her home was warned he could face a life sentence for the crime.

Kyle Mckenzie mercilessly subjected his victim to the ordeal, despite the 84-year-old woman telling him: “You are going to kill me.”

Mckenzie, 23, armed with a gardening tool, donned a balaclava and rubber gloves before breaking into the house in Glenrothes, where the disabled pensioner lived alone.

The woman managed to use her community alarm to summon help.

Mckenzie earlier admitted breaking into the woman’s home on June 25 2020 and assaulting and raping her.

He also pled guilty to breaking into the home of another elderly woman in the Fife town on the same night and stealing a decanter from her house.

Lord Boyd of Duncansby, at the High Court in Edinburgh, asked for a risk assessment order to be prepared as a prelude to a possible Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR).

The judge told Mckenzie: “The level of violence which you used in this case was really quite extreme.”

Lord Boyd pointed out there was “a degree of preparation” in the offence.

He acknowledged Mckenzie was a first offender but added: “You express guilt and shame, but you are really unable to provide an explanation.”

The court heard the rape victim had gone to bed after leaving a bedroom window open by an inch when she was wakened about 5am with covers being pulled from her body.

Advocate depute Graeme Jessop said: “She observed a male wearing all black clothing and a balaclava brandishing a garden tool.

“He stated: ‘Don’t scream, don’t resist’.”

The pensioner began to struggle and was repeatedly punched in the head.

During the assault Mckenzie put his hands on her chest, which restricted her breathing.

As she continued to fight for breath, she said: “You are going to kill me.”

The prosecutor said during the assault the woman remembered her community alarm and decided to ask her assailant to move her to the bed.

Mckenzie assisted her on to the bed and she managed to reach an alarm bracelet above the headboard and activate it.

An alarm team employee contacted her and she said: “Please send someone as quickly as you can.

“I’ve just been raped. Somebody’s broken into the house, please hurry, please.”

Mckenzie escaped through the bedroom window.

He was arrested on July 7 in 2020 at a known associate’s home in Kirkcaldy.

Mckenzie originally indicated he intended to rely on a special defence of consent over the rape charge.

Defence solicitor advocate Krista Johnston told Lord Boyd yesterday: “He has little recollection of events. He was at the end of a long binge session.”

She said a background report prepared on Mckenzie, who was living between addresses in Glenrothes and Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, at the time of the offences, described him as “being overcome by guilt and shame”.

She said: “There is no history of sexual deviancy. He had an age-appropriate girlfriend at the time.”

Lord Boyd adjourned sentencing on Mckenzie until May for the preparation of the full risk assessment report on him.

Under an OLR the court fixes a minimum term that the offender must serve in prison and any future release is decided by parole authorities, with monitoring continuing .