Man who raped elderly widow warned he faces life sentence for attack

Kyle McKenzie attacked the 84-year-old woman in her home in Glenrothes, Fife, in 2020.

Kyle McKenzie raped elderly widow in her own home in Glenrothes, Fife iStock

An armed intruder who raped an elderly widow in her home has been warned he faces a life sentence. 

Kyle McKenzie subjected his victim to the attack despite the 84-year-old telling him: “You are going to kill me.”

McKenzie, 23, donned a balaclava and rubber gloves before breaking into the house in Glenrothes, Fife, where the disabled pensioner resided alone.

The woman managed to access her community alarm to summon help after asking her attacker to get her onto a bed during the assault.

McKenzie earlier admitted breaking into the woman’s home on June 25, 2020 and assaulting and raping her. 

He also pled guilty to breaking into the home of another elderly woman in the Fife town on the same night and stealing a decanter from her house.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh that he was going to make a risk assessment order as he was satisfied that the risk criteria may be met.

Lord Boyd of Duncansby said: “It is a prelude to my imposing an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) if the risk assessment suggests that, but it is not inevitable by any means.”

Under an OLR the court fixes a minimum term that the offender must serve in prison, but any future release is decided by parole authorities, with monitoring continuing. The indeterminate sentence is reserved for the most serious sexual and violent cases, short of murder.  

The judge told McKenzie: “The level of violence which you used in this case was really quite extreme.”

Lord Boyd pointed out the victim was an elderly, disabled woman and that there was “a degree of preparation” in the offence with the wearing of a mask and gloves and arming himself with a garden tool as a weapon. 

The judge said he acknowledged that McKenzie was a first offender, but added: “You express guilt and shame, but you are really unable to provide an explanation.”    

The court heard that the victim had gone to bed after leaving a bedroom window open by an inch when she was awakened about 5am with covers being pulled from her body.

Advocate depute Graeme Jessop 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 pensioner began to struggle with her attacker and was repeatedly punched in the head.  

During the assault, McKenzie put his hands on her chest which restricted her breathing.

Mr Jessop said at one stage the woman was instructed by her attacker to turn onto her stomach but was unable to do so as she continued to struggle for breath, and told him: “You are going to kill me.”

The prosecutor said that during the assault the woman remembered her community alarm and decided to ask her assailant to move her to the bed from the floor so she could access it.

McKenzie assisted her onto the bed and she managed to reach an alarm bracelet above the headboard and activate it.

An alarm team employee contacted her, and she said: “Please send someone as quickly as you can. I’ve just been raped. Somebody’s broken into the house, please hurry, please.”    

McKenzie escaped through the bedroom window after the alarm was triggered. He was arrested on July 7, 2020 after police went to the home of a known associate of his in Kirkcaldy.

As he was being transferred to Kirkcaldy police station, he said: “Allegation of rape, that’ll ruin me. Are the papers gonna know my name?”

Prior to McKenzie admitting the offences he had tendered not guilty pleas at an earlier stage in proceedings and indicated he intended to rely on a special defence of consent over the rape charge.

Defence solicitor advocate Krista Johnston asked Lord Boyd to deal with McKenzie on Friday.

She said: “He has little recollection of events. He was at the end of a long binge session.”

She said a background report prepared on McKenzie described him as “being overcome by guilt and shame”.

She said: “He was 21 at the time of the offences. He has no history of previous convictions. There is no history of sexual deviancy. He had an age appropriate girlfriend at the time.”

Lord Boyd adjourned sentencing on McKenzie until May for the preparation of the full risk assessment report on him.

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