A woman broke down in court yesterday as she told a jury how a man tried to “cook” her son as a punishment for failing to co-operate with him as he beat, raped and sexually assaulted her.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the High Court in Aberdeen that Duncan Begg appeared at her flat door one evening more than 20 years ago asking for a lighter.
She said when she turned her back to go and fetch one for him he let himself into her home before carrying out a prolonged, violent and sustained sexual attack which left her covered in blood and in extreme pain.
The woman was giving evidence during the second day of the trial against Begg who is alleged to have committed a catalogue of horrifying offences in the Highlands including a string of rapes, threatening to cook a baby and killing a kitten.
Begg is accused of attacking three women, attempting to rape two youngsters and is alleged to have used bottles, children’s toys and even earwigs in a series of indecent assaults on the adults.
The 48-year-old denies all the offences which are alleged to have taken place over a 26-year-period in Caithness between January 1984 and January 2010.
Begg, of 14 Cruachan Place, Portree, Isle of Skye, has also lodged a special defence claiming that all sexual contact he had with the women was consensual.
Yesterday, one woman told a jury of seven men and eight women she had feared for the life of her baby boy, who was only months old, when Begg appeared uninvited at her home in Wick.
She said when he first entered the house Begg forced her to the ground where he repeated raped her as her son was sleeping in a cot nearby.
The woman said the attack continued and she tried to fight back while shouting and screaming in the hope that her neighbours would hear, but no one came to her aid.
The court heard the attack stopped for a short while as the baby started crying. The woman told the court that Begg became “wild” when he heard the child’s screams and ordered her to keep it quiet.
When she was unable to get him to stop crying Begg took the child and turned on the grill before proceeding to place him ever so slightly into the oven, she said.
The court heard she started to beg for him to stop, so he proceeded to take a cord which tied back her curtains and placed it round the child’s neck. The woman sobbed as she told the court how he then held him by the ankle and the cord and dangled the baby out of the window so he was hanging above the concrete.
The woman said at that point she stopped struggling with Begg who she claimed kept her captive in her home for weeks after.
Duncan Begg is alleged to have committed 43 extremely violent offences.
Begg is accused of using lewd, libidinous and indecent practices towards two young boys and attempting to rape a child aged between a month and six years old.
It also alleged that he attempted to rape a 12-year-old girl while he was acting with another man.
Begg is accused of threatening to cook a six-month-old boy on various occasions by holding the child over a lit cooker ring before trying to put the infant’s head under a grill.
It is also alleged that, on more than one occasion, Begg, of 14 Cruachan Place, Portree, Skye, tied a ligature around the boy’s body before hanging him out of a window to the danger of his life.
He is also accused of holding a woman captive in a boiler-room cupboard for four weeks in early 1991. It is also alleged that he catapulted a kitten from a baby bouncer in June 1990, causing it to hit the ceiling and suffer fatal injuries.
Begg faces a total of 11 rape charges.
He denies all the charges against him. The case continues.