A depraved sex attacker used an Egyptian-themed underground lair at his Caithness house to abuse women, it has been revealed.
Kevin Booth, 64, recruited females from the UK and abroad to come to Lochdhu Lodge in Altnabreac, Caithness, and have so-called “punishment beatings” administered to them.
He also “violently whipped” women and girls elsewhere – “causing them extreme distress and pain,” new court documents show.
Wick Sheriff Court heard how the lodge – a baronial former shooting lodge and hotel – is in a “remote location” at the end of a 14-mile long private road.
The court heard that, within a building at the lodge, there is a trapdoor.
It gives access to an underground chamber area with a 60m-long curved concrete tunnel.
Empty coffin
The chamber contains an empty coffin, “life-sized Egyptian figures and a metal bench”.
Detective Sergeant Christopher Hughes gave evidence to the civil action about Booth’s activities at the lodge.
He said Booth had regularly travelled abroad to recruit vulnerable women from poor countries.
There, booth had arranged for and paid for the women to travel to countries including South Africa, Dubai, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, where, once isolated and within his control, he subjected them to violent beatings.
Sheriff Neil Wilson described how Booth abused the females and filmed the attacks.
Describing one of the videos played to the court, Sheriff Wilson wrote: “This video shows the red-and-black metal contraption in the tomb area of Lochdhu.
“A young black woman is hand cuffed to it in a kneeling position.
“The defender tells her she is being punished for the way she spoke to him.
“He tells her she has to learn her lesson. She appears to be terrified. She is screaming and crying.
“She repeatedly tries to get away but is handcuffed to the bench.”
Booth then swapped implements and continues to beat her.
The description continued: “She is hysterical. She cries out that it is painful.
“The defender tells her to ‘pray for the strength to take it properly’.
“This continues for 18 minutes.”
‘She is terrified’
Sheriff Wilson wrote: “This appears to be nothing other than torture.
“She is chained to the contraption while the defender beats her.
“She is apparently terrified and tries to escape but cannot.”
Booth’s actions at the lodge prompted Iain Livingston, the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, to raise a civil action against Booth at Wick Sheriff Court.
The judgement also tells of how police also searched Booth’s home in connection with allegations made about his conduct in March 2019.
He appeared in court in private in connection with these allegations in December 2019 but the procurator fiscal discontinued these proceedings in March 2021.
Lawyers for Police Scotland asked Sheriff Wilson to pass a Trafficking and Exploitation Order under Human Trafficking and Exploitation law, for a period of five years.
They told the court that between 1998 and December 2022, Booth engaged in a “consistent course of conduct of recruiting women, both from the UK and abroad”.
This was the purposes of “isolating them, either at Lochdhu Lodge.. far from their homes, beating them and through threats of violence, to perform sexual acts on him”
The lawyers told the court the police couldn’t monitor Booth when he travelled outside of the UK.
Travel ban
They argued that the best way to minimise the risk he posed to women and girls was to ban him from going abroad.
Sheriff Wilson agreed and passed such an order – the first to be granted in Scottish legal history.
As well as the foreign travel ban, Booth must notify police 14 days before hiring women, such as for housekeeping roles.
Booth must also notify police in advance of any female visitors to the remote property.
And police can visit to check on him unannounced.
He must surrender all passports.
Sheriff Wilson said the action was the first of its kind.
Coercion into abuse
He added: “The defender has – consistently over many years – been engaged in a course of conduct involving the targeting of financially vulnerable women.
“He subsequently coerces them into submitting to abuse, and in doing so committed acts of human trafficking and exploitation.
“I would go so far as to describe the evidence as overwhelming, and that the totality of the evidence presented by the pursuer, in the form of videos, Skype messages, documents and witness statements allows no other conclusion.
“The evidence of Mr Booth’s egregious conduct, as presented in court, was at times, utterly harrowing.
“The graphic video footage…was redolent of a level of cruelty and depravity, which, while extreme, one can only hope is rare.
“It is important not to lose sight of the human suffering giving rise to this case.”
It is not the first time Booth – once described as a millionaire racing tipster – has came to attention of the authorities.
Fled the UK
He was charged with assaulting children in his care at a school in 1991 by caning and whipping them.
Booth left the UK prior to his trial in an “attempt to evade justice” and was later given a three-month suspended jail term.
In 2002, Booth was convicted after trial at Bradford Crown Court of indecently assaulting his Brazilian au pair, then in and given a two-year jail term.
Sheriff Wilson heard how in this case, Booth threatened the woman with a “riding whip” before instructing her to remove her clothing – he later performed a sex act on her.
The court also heard how after leaving university, he went to teach in Botswana where he “caned many students and enjoyed doing so.”
Police Scotland became aware of Booth’s activities and started investigating him.
They seized hundreds of videos from Booth’s property of him assaulting women.
Abuse videos played in court
The court saw 13 videos of Booth’s conduct.
Sheriff Wilson wrote: “A consistent feature of these assaults is that the defender takes pleasure in assaulting his victims, justifies them as “punishment beatings” for minor real or imagined infringements.
“He takes great care in inspecting and filming the injuries inflicted, and that in counting the set number of blows to be administered threatens to start again if the victim struggles or resists in any way.
“(Booth used) coercion by way of threats to withhold payment of wages to force his victims to submit to the assaults.
“At least two of the beatings are at Lochdhu Lodge.”