Rapist who targeted pregnant women jailed

A DOUBLE rapist was jailed for 10 years yesterday after his brutality towards pregnant women endangered the lives of their unborn children.

Hugh Mcphee, 56, carried out a catalogue of abuse against victims during which he assaulted expectant mothers.

But Mcphee was sent to prison still maintaining that he did not commit the offences.

Mcphee kicked down a bathroom door after one woman took refuge there to escape him.

The former cinema projectionist also repeatedly kicked and punched the woman, threw a cup of tea over her and rubbed her face in a sandwich.

He also slapped the pregnant woman on the face during an attack at a house in Wick, in Caithness, in 1986; forced her to put her hand on a mantelpiece and struck it with a poker; and kicked her in the abdomen.

Mcphee took a lit cigarette from the woman and pressed it against her arm, slapped her on the face and grabbed her by the hair.

He also dragged her on to a bed, pulled off her clothes and raped her during her ordeal.

Mcphee, of Caithness, had earlier denied a string of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was convicted of nine offences including assault, rape, indecent assault and indecent behaviour.

The offences against two women occurred between 1980 and 2002.

He told his trial that one of the women had struck him on the head with a poker and said: “She lifted the poker and said she was going to hit me.”

Judge Nigel Morrison QC told Mcphee: “You have been found guilty of a number of charges of physical and sexual abuse. There is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

He told Mcphee that he would be placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.