The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Thai boxing tutor jailed for rape in Inverness
A Thai boxing instructor has been locked up for brutally assaulting and raping a woman.
Thomas Eccles, 46, from Inverness, appeared for sentence at the High Court after having been earlier convicted by a jury.
Eccles will spend the rest of his life on the sex offenders register.
Eccles, of Margaret Street, was convicted of raping the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, after a four-day case.
During those proceedings, the court heard how Eccles, who previously ran a Thai restaurant in his home city, attacked the woman at an address in Inverness.
Defence solicitor advocate gordon Martin told the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday that this was the first time his client had been in trouble with the law.
He added: “He has lost everything that he has worked for throughout his life. He had a business. He knows his life is ruined.”
Lord Bannatyne told Eccles: “Given the gravity of the offence, you will go to prison for four years and three months.”
An Inverness Thai boxing instructor who brutally assaultedandrapedawoman was jailed for more than four years yesterday.
Thomas Eccles, 46, appeared for sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh after being convicted by a jury after trial at the High Court in Inverness in March.
Lord Bannatyne told Eccles that he would spend the rest of his life on the sex offenders register.
Eccles, of Margaret Street, Inverness, was convicted of raping the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, after a four-day case.
During those proceedings, the court heard how Eccles, who previously ran a Thai restaurant in his home city, attacked the woman at an address in Inverness.
He repeatedly punched his victim before forcing her to perform a series of degrading sex acts on him.
He then forced her to have intercourse with him. The woman told the court that during her ordeal, she cried and asked him to stop. But Eccles ignored her pleas for mercy and continued to abuse her. After the attack ended, the woman walked to a nearby branch of Tesco’s and told a security guard about what happened to her.
Eccles spent his trial denying the attack, claiming that he had consensual sex with her. Onlookers say he was stunned when the jury returned a guilty verdict.
Defence solicitor advocate Gordonmartin yesterday told the court that this was the first time his client had been in trouble with the law.
He added: “He has lost everything that he has worked for throughout his life. He had a business. He knows his life is ruined. He is a first offender who has no previous criminal convictions. I would ask your lordship to take these fac-
“During her ordeal, she cried and asked him to stop”
tors into consideration when passing sentence.”
Lord Bannatyne told Eccles: “Given the gravity of the offence you will go to prison for four years and three months.”
During the trial forensic medical examiner Milosz Bieniecki said the woman’s injuries were consistent with being hit several times with a fist on her face, neck, shoulder, arm, back and buttock, in keeping with her account of the attack.
Eccles claimed in his evidence that after having consensual sex they fought, and that his acting in selfdefence explained the fresh bruises on her body. The trial of a man accused of driving dangerously in residential areas of the Highlands has been adjourned until September 20.
Brian Macleay, 62, of Homelea, Achnairn, Lairg, denies driving a car dangerously on the A9 Scrabster-inverness road at the Dornoch Bridge and the A836 Edderton-tongue road between the Dornoch Bridge and Invershin on November 1 last year.
He is alleged to have driven at excessive speeds throughout the entire route and in particular between Ardgay and Bonar Bridge, where he is alleged to have driven at 90mph in a 60mph speed limit, and on Lairg Road, Bonar Bridge, where he is alleged to have driven at 80mph in a built-up area with a limit of 30mph.
Macleay is also alleged to have driven in excess of 100mph between Bonar Bridge and Invershinandtohave failed to stop for pursuing police c a r s be tween the Dornoch Bridge and Edderton and throughout the journey between Ardgay and Invershin.
He was ordained yesterday to appear for trial at Tain Sheriff Court on September 20.