Kyle McKenzie jailed after raping and sexually assaulting elderly woman in Glenrothes in Fife

A masked intruder who subjected an elderly disabled woman to a “violent” ordeal of rape and sexual assault after breaking into her home has been jailed for 11 years.

Kyle McKenzie, 23, left his distressed victim in shock and pain and fled from the house in Glenrothes, Fife only after the 84-year-old managed to activate an alarm.

An adviser from a community alarm team called the pensioner and the crying woman, who lived alone, told him: “Please send someone as quickly as you can, I’ve just been raped. Please.”

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that during the attack, the woman was struggling for breath and told McKenzie as she lay on the floor of her bedroom: “You are going to kill me.”

However, the woman remembered her alarm and got her attacker to help move her onto a bed where he continued to sexually assault her, but she could reach the help device.

A judge told the rapist: “It is clear to me this was planned. You were dressed in black. You wore a balaclava and you were armed with a gardening tool.”

Lord Boyd of Duncansby said: “You subjected this woman to a sustained, violent and degrading sexual assault in the course of which you raped her.”

“It is difficult to put into words the revulsion that all right-thinking people will have for your conduct that night,” he told the sex offender.

“The complainer fought back. Because she would not comply with your instructions you hit and punched round the head and body. You caused her breathing problems, ” said Lord Boyd.

“Through all of this she had the presence of mind to ask you to move her back onto the bed because she knew if you did that she would be able to reach across and activate the community alarm,” he said.

Lord Boyd said: “Not unnaturally this woman wonders what might have happened had she not activated the alarm.”

The judge said he was provided with two victim impact statements from the woman which he said were particularly difficult to read as she described the searing pain she suffered in the attack and the psychological impact, including nightmares and flashbacks.

Lord Boyd said: “But there is another side to this remarkable woman. She told me of the kindness she has received from those who cared for her.”

The judge said: “She is a remarkably brave and inspiring lady. All of this stands in marked contrast to your brutality and cowardice.”

Lord Boyd ordered that McKenzie should be kept under supervision for a further five years and told him that if he had been over 25 the starting point for his jail term would have been 14 years “and may have been considerably longer”.

The judge acknowledged that he had suffered adverse childhood experiences, including the suicide of his mother, but said he was “an intelligent young man”.

He told McKenzie: “You knew perfectly well what you were doing was wicked in the extreme.”

First offender McKenzie, who was living between addresses in Glenrothes and Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, earlier admitted breaking into the woman’s home in the early hours of June 25 in 2020 and assaulting and raping the widow.

He also pled guilty to committing a further break in at an elderly couple’s home in Glenrothes earlier that morning during which he stole a decanter.

McKenzie’s guilty plea to the rape came late in proceedings and he had previously claimed that his victim consented to the sex. The woman had to give evidence at a commission, to provide recorded testimony, where she was cross examined by his lawyers.

Advocate depute Graeme Jessop told the court that the rape victim’s ordeal began about 5am when she awoke to find the bed covers being pulled from her.

The prosecutor said: “She observed a male wearing all black clothing and a balaclava brandishing a garden tool. He stated ‘Don’t scream. Don’t resist’.”

But the woman chose to resist and during a struggle with McKenzie as she grabbed the hand containing the weapon she realised he was wearing rubber gloves.

Following a police investigation into the attack McKenzie was arrested at the home of a known associate in Kirkcaldy, in Fife, on July 7 in 2020. He had visible scratch marks to both sides of his neck.

Mr Jessop said: “En route to Kirkcaldy Police Station the accused stated: “Allegation of rape, that’ll ruin me. Are the papers gonna know my name?”

Defence solicitor advocate Krista Johnston said that for a considerable time after the offence McKenzie was unable to accept the enormity of what he had done. She said: “He accepts it now.”

She argued against the imposition of an indeterminate sentence on McKenzie, pointing out he was assessed as presenting a medium risk. She said: “His motivation to change is assessed as being genuine and sustained.”

McKenzie was place on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely following sentencing.