The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fife rapist told to expect life in jail
COURT: Girl, 15, left ‘unrecognisable’ after brutal attack
A girl snatched from the streets of Dunfermline and repeatedly raped was “unrecognisable” after the terrifying ordeal.
Mark Armstrong has been told he faces life in jail after the brutal and prolonged attack on his 15 year-old victim.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard the teenager was given nothing to eat and only one drink as she suffered 32 hours of abuse.
She suffered such horrendous facial injuries that officers who had previously released photos of her as part of a missing persons inquiry could not recognise her.
The girl had been returning home from a sports practice session when Armstrong pounced.
The accused only spoke to her to tell her what to do, to shut up or stop shivering. DEPUTE ADVOCATE JANE FARQUHARSON
A Fife man who snatched a schoolgirl off the street and subjected her to a horrific catalogue of rape and abuse during a 32-hour ordeal was yesterday told he could face a life sentence.
At the High Court in Edinburgh judge Lady Wise called for a full risk assessment report to be prepared on Mark Armstrong, which could lead to the imposition of an order for lifelong restriction.
Armstrong, 26, kidnapped his 15-yearold victim as she returned home from sports practice on March 12. He warned her he had a flick knife and he would use it if she tried to flee or scream for help.
He strangled the girl and subjected her to a brutal, prolonged sex attack in the grounds of a derelict cottage at Kingseat Road in Dunfermline.
He asked the teenager if she had had intercourse before raping her as she lay in thorns. She kept telling him to stop during the rape “that hurt so bad” but he did not.
Armstrong led the girl back to his home in the town and continued to subject her to sexual abuse and rape.
The victim later said it happened “over and over again”.
Depute advocate Jane Farquharson told court earlier: “The accused only spoke to tell her what to do, to shut up or stop shivering.
During the lengthy ordeal Armstrong also donned surgical gloves to wash the girl and scrub her nails. He tried to get her to smoke cannabis. The victim’s mother had reported her missing. Police who were searching the derelict cottage found the girl's T-shirt, bra and broken glasses, and informed her mother.
Miss Farquharson told the court: “At this stage, of course, the complainer’s whereabouts were still unknown.”
Only hours later did unemployed Armstrong finally free his captive and return her phone. The girl later told police: “I just wanted to call my mum.”
The victim was able to describe a wheel at the entrance to Lochore Meadows country park and she was reunited with her mother there.
Police who arrived at the scene described seeing the mother hugging the girl, who was “shaking, crying and occasionally howling”.
The victim had facial injuries that left her unrecognisable to officers from the photos of her they had been given.
Armstrong, of Macbeth Road in Dunfermline, previously admitted abducting, assaulting and raping the girl between March 12 and 14 this year.
He also pled guilty to a string of assault and robbery offences committed against women in the town in the days leading up to the attack on the teenager.
X-ray operator Erin Keir, 33, was attacked and robbed of her handbag at White field Road on March 4. Armstrong struck again four days later at Wood-mill Road, where he assaulted and robbed Kayleigh Weir, 28, of a handbag.
He carried out a third assault and robbery two days after that on Fiona Buchanan, 55, at Bendachin Drive.
Yesterday Lady Wise told Armstrong he had pled guilty to an offence that was “horrendous in nature”.
She said she would make a risk assessment order and told him he could expect to be interviewed at length as that was prepared.
Armstrong was earlier placed on the sex offenders register. He was remanded in custody.