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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Vic Rodrick

Scottish amateur masseur raped woman in her home after claiming it was consensual

A Scottish amateur masseur raped a naked woman in her home.

Lee Rigby told a jury that his 46-year-old victim had voluntarily taken off all her clothes so he could knead the aching muscles in her shoulders and back.

He claimed she then started grinding her bottom against his groin before having consensual anal sex with him.

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However, jurors at the High Court in Livingston rejected his defence and accepted the woman’s evidence that she had told him beforehand that sex was “off the cards completely”.

They also accepted her testimony that Rigby had continued having unwanted sexual intercourse with her for five minutes despite her repeatedly telling him to stop because he was hurting her.

She said: “I was still telling him ‘No, no, please stop. It’s sore.’ When somebody doesn’t want something you don’t do it.

“I just dissociated myself. (I thought) It’s not going to stop so I’ll just take myself somewhere until it’s over.

“I took myself off into the happy place I used to go as a kid when something was happening to me.”

She added that she told Rigby afterwards: “It’s going to hurt for the rest of my life.

"You’ve just violated me in my supposed-to-be-forever home.”

The jury returned a majority verdict finding Rigby guilty of brutally raping the woman at her home in Glenrothes, Fife, on October 29 2019.

Jurors deleted an allegation that Rigby had touched the woman’s breasts before raping her and an aggravation that the offence involved abuse of his partner or ex-partner.

Judge Norman McFadyen called for criminal justice social work reports into Rigby's background and adjourned the case for sentencing at Edinburgh High Court.

Rigby, 53, from Kinghorn, Fife, had his name added to the sex offenders’ register with immediate effect and was told that details of his conviction would be notified to Scottish Ministers under legislation to protect vulnerable groups.

During his trial the woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said she had been trying to rekindle a six-month relationship with the accused before the rape finally brought it to an end.

She told how she lay down on a mattress on her belly so Rigby could give her a deep massage after he volunteered to ease her aches and pains.

She said: “He was actually just giving me a really nice massage but his hands were trying to wander round to my breasts.

“I’d already said I didn’t want to be doing anything sexual. A massage is a massage – sexual things were off the cards completely.”

When Rigby moved down to massaging her waist and hips she said she took off her leggings leaving herself completely naked.

She told the jury: “He was behind me. I wasn’t looking round to see what he was doing. Obviously I knew where his hands were.

“He did ask if it was OK to take his shorts off which I was fine with as long as there was no sexual contact.

"Skin to skin’s OK. I’ve always spoken about tantric sex – which is skin to skin touching – as a closeness like mother and baby.

“You can sit comfortably with someone naked when you’re in a relationship.”

She said Rigby suddenly lifted her hips up so her bottom was up in the air and started raping her from behind.

She told jurors: “I said: ‘Stop. It’s sore!’ I kept telling him to stop because it was hurting.”

She said she rolled over into the foetal position and lay sobbing after her ordeal.

She admitted she had been arrested and held overnight in a prison cell the following day for allegedly damaging the front door of Rigby’s flat before going to give specialist police officers a statement alleging that he had raped her.

Giving evidence in his own defence, Rigby, of Castle Wynd, Kinghorn, said there had been a disagreement with the woman at his home after he accused her of being back on heroin.

He said: “It ended with me pushing her out after she said she was going to get me done with rape, which I didn’t do obviously.”

He claimed he had never heard her saying during sex that it was sore, adding: “I know the difference between yes and no. It’s just the way I am. I would have stopped right away.”

Asked how he felt about the complainer’s evidence he said: “I honestly just wanted to burst out laughing, it was that comical some of the stuff she was coming out with.”

He is due to be sentenced on October 3.

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