Rape allegations

A jury has been sent out to deliberate in the trial of a Lewis man accused of rape.

Richard Baker is accused raping three women at different locations in the Western Isles.

The 31-year-old also faces a number of allegations of assault over a seven year period.

Baker has lodged a special defence of consent to some charges.

In his closing speech to the jury prosecutor Allan Nicol said Baker physically and sexually abused the women in “compelling similar ways.”

One was “coerced” into having sex and was “screaming, crying, humiliated” at her experience said Allan Nicol.

Another was “very scared” of his reaction if she refused to have sex with him and said he squashed her in a mattress holding it down over her, said the prosecutor.

Instead of waiting a few weeks, Baker had sex with her against her wishes just ten days after she had a baby - “he simply had his way,” said Mr Nicol.

“At no time ever” did the third consent to sexual intercourse and she had bruises on her neck after an assault, he suggested.

Defence counsel John McElroy said one woman accused Baker of assaulting him in front of her friends but “she can’t really tell us” their names.

“So where are they?” he added.

Another woman was not “credible” and her “reliability doesn’t even get off the ground,” said the advocate.

She could not recall when initially asked but “later she seems to remember non-consensual sex on the sofa,” he said.

The woman suggested he was a “controlling, nasty sexual predator” yet sent him an electronic message, saying she loved him, said the advocate.

Baker denies all the charges.

Judge Sean Murphy sent the jury out to deliberate.

The trial continues.

The trial is taking place at Glasgow High Court

Jury hears of rape allegations

17 January 2018