Man who raped heavily pregnant woman in hospital bed jailed

A former company director has been jailed for 13 years after raping a pregnant woman in a hospital bed during a catalogue of violence and sexual abuse against victims in the Highlands.

John Dodd, 41, subjected two women to repeated rapes and sexual assaults between 2004 and 2022 in Tain, Alness, Inverness and Clashmore, near Dornoch.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh that he was found guilty of 14 charges of serious offences of violence and sexual abuse against the women.

Judge Norman McFadyen KC said: “They were subjected to violent and controlling behaviour and serious sexual offences.

“Almost unbelievably, you raped your first victim when she was in a hospital bed, unwell and heavily pregnant.”

He said that Dodd, who maintains he is innocent, had shown no victim empathy but instead indulged in “straightforward victim blaming”.

John Dodd was convicted of raping a pregnant woman in hospital Police Scotland

The judge ordered that Dodd should be under close supervision in the community for a further three years, when he will be on licence and can be returned to prison if he breaches the conditions.

Dodd, formerly of Clashmore, near Dornoch, had originally faced 20 charges during an earlier trial when he denied the allegations against him.

He attacked his first victim at a cottage in Sutherland and repeatedly molested and raped the woman at a house in Alness when she was asleep between March 2006 and May 2007.

In May 2006, he raped the victim while she was in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

Dodd also pursued a course of abusive behaviour towards a second woman between 2021 and 2023 at locations in the Highlands.

Dodd also raped the woman and carried out sex acts on her on various occasions between December 2021 and December 2022 at addresses in Tain and Dornoch when she was asleep and when she was awake.

Dodd, who told the court he was a director of a forestry firm, denied during his evidence that he ever said anything to the first victim about her clothes or her appearance and maintained that he had no issues with that.

The woman said there were episodes when she woke from sleep to find that she was being sexually penetrated, but Dodd denied that it had happened and said that intercourse with her was consensual.

Defence counsel Louis Bendle told the court: “Although he maintains his denial of the offences, he is under no illusion that they are extremely serious and a custodial sentence is inevitable.”

He said: “He maintains his innocence, which is not unusual in cases such as this. He has lived an otherwise pro-social lifestyle, with supportive friends and family.”

Dodd, who was remanded in custody at the end of the trial, followed the sentencing proceedings via a TV link to prison and was told he would be placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely. The judge made non harassment orders prohibiting him from contacting or attempting to contact the victims.