A sexual predator who plied his frightened victim with alcohol and drugs before raping her twice during an abuse-filled weekend has been jailed.
Neil Kennedy targeted the woman at his home in Keith after she agreed to share his bed because she “trusted him”.
Kennedy, 41, had denied a charge that he attacked the woman twice in one day but was found guilty by a jury following a trial at the High Court in Inverness.
He returned to the dock for sentencing today and was jailed for six years and six months.
The jury that convicted him previously heard how Kennedy’s victim, who was in her early 20s, had gone to visit her attacker who had given her crack cocaine and whisky miniatures before the attack.
‘I know you want to, we both know you want this to happen’
During the visit, Kennedy took the woman’s clothes and put them in the washing machine, giving her lounge trousers and a T-shirt to wear instead after she decided to stay the night.
In evidence led by the prosecutor, advocate depute James Irvine, she told jurors: “I didn’t mind sleeping in his bed because I trusted him.”
But once the pair had retired to bed in the early hours of June 11 2022, Kennedy began to make advances that she rebuffed.
“He was insinuating about him and I having sex. I said ‘no’ to him,” the woman said.
“He kept going on, saying something like ‘I know you want to, we both know you want this to happen’ and things like that.
“I had said several times ‘no’, and I didn’t want to.”
She told the court the next thing she remembered was Kennedy pulling her trousers down and raping her.
‘Just stop, I don’t want this’
“I kept saying ‘no’ – that is all I kept saying – ‘just stop, I don’t want this’,” she explained to jurors.
The woman kicked at Kennedy and tried to push him away but he was too strong to overcome.
She told the jury that the rape left her feeling “frozen” and added: “I couldn’t really do anything.”
She said that she remained in Kennedy’s bed and was still there when police officers called at the property.
“I had moved to make a noise but he ended up putting a pillow over my face so I couldn’t do nothing,” she said. “He made sure I couldn’t call for help.”
The woman said she entered a state of “depression” following the rape, sleeping on and off in Kennedy’s bed before moving to the living room sofa at one point to “have a bit of space”.
Frightened woman ‘too scared’ to leave attacker’s home for two days
She said Kennedy then asked what she was doing before placing her over his shoulder and carrying her back to his bed and raping her a second time.
Asked why she did not leave the flat when she had the chance, she replied: “I genuinely don’t know why I didn’t leave. I think I was just too scared.”
The woman said the attacks left her feeling “scared” and “sore” and it was not until two days later when Kennedy was sleeping that she retrieved her still-wet clothes from his washing machine and left the flat.
Once outside, she contacted her mother telling her what had happened, saying she had been “abused all weekend”.
In a text, she wrote: “Mum, I scared and I’m in agony” and reported the rapes to the police that same day.
Kennedy was arrested and at interview claimed to have spent the weekend elsewhere, although it was finally conceded at trial that he was, in fact, at home.
Rapist denied sexual contact with victim but her DNA was found on him
He denied sexual contact with his victim, telling police: “She is a liar, eh?” and “It’s not happened!”
However, forensic testing found the woman’s DNA on his penis, the trial heard.
Kennedy gave no evidence in his own defence and the jury took less than two hours to convict him, finding him guilty of the rapes.
He followed through with that sentiment at sentencing on Friday when he imposed a six-and-a-half-year jail term.
Kennedy was also ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.
He was also handed a non-harassment order, preventing him from contacting his victim.
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