Rapist claimed he was having ‘affair’ with victim

A man has been convicted of raping a woman and leaving her crying hysterically and looking like she had been “dragged through a hedge.”

Steven Burns, 42, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, claimed to a jury that he had been having an affair with the woman, and that she had consented to sex on a patch of wet, marshy ground near Denfield Park, Kirkcaldy, in October 2011.

However, the High Court in Edinburgh was told that the victim, 31, had been found by police with leaves, dirt and twigs in her hair, and crying hysterically. A witness said she looked as though she had been dragged through a hedge.

The jury found Burns guilty of seizing the woman, pulling her by the hair, tearing off her clothing and holding his hand and a piece of clothing over her mouth. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting and raping her.

Burns was remanded in custody to be sentenced in March.