25kg West Lothian rapist who claimed he was ‘too big for sex’ jailed

A West Lothian rapist convicted of sexually abusing a victim after claiming he “squashed” her has had his sentence deferred.

Lee Mulholland claimed he couldn’t have committed the crime because his body weight left her “unable to breathe”. The Beast has now been found guilty and faces a “heavy” sentence for two counts of rape, the Daily Record reports.

A jury rejected his bizarre defence during a trial at the High Court in Livingston. The 38-year-old was found guilty of controlling and abusing his first victim for two years.

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The jury heard that he punched and kicked her, tortured her by pinching and twisting her skin, bent her fingers backwards and stabbed her repeatedly with tweezers, and tried to carve his name into her back with his fingernails.

Further rape allegations in 2022 proved unproven. Both women broke down in tears as they made strikingly similar statements about how Mulholland was initially loving but quickly turned nasty and abusive, calling them names like “bitch,” “whore,” and “hunk.”

The court heard he stood on the feet of both women and even attacked one of the women’s dog by grabbing it by the tail and pulling it backwards before standing on its paws. He also repeatedly attacked both women by throwing household items at them and hitting and pinching them on the bottom and the tops of their arms and legs where bruises were not visible.

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He accused one of the women of cheating on him – even though he was seeing another woman at the time. She recounted how he sprayed her with his deodorant and told her: “You smell like a guy now, so no one is going anywhere near you.”

He also forced her to borrow money from relatives to buy his flashy yellow Ford Focus ST with the coveted license plate because he had lost his job shortly after purchasing the car. Ironically, some of his violent acts were recorded by a Ring doorbell he had installed in her home at the time so he could monitor her movements.

However, at some point he blocked her access to the footage so she could not see who he had brought into the house. Mulholland claimed in his defense that the women, whose identities are unknown, were lying and that any sexual contact between them was consensual.

He said the first woman had to arouse him because of his size before she got on top of him to have sex. His defence lawyer Ian Duguid KC asked the jury: “Is it physically possible for a 150kg man to get on top of a woman who is only 5ft 2in?”

“She described him as traumatized because she couldn’t push him away and couldn’t speak. He says it was always normal for her to sit on him.”

The jury rejected the defense’s allegations and found his client guilty of both rapes. Judge William Gallacher ordered a criminal justice social work report on Mulholland’s past and ordered probation.

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He told the defendant: “You have been convicted by the jury of extremely serious offences. Although you have never been in prison before, a term of imprisonment is inevitable, and a significant sentence of this magnitude at that.”

“I will appear before the High Court in Glasgow on 19 July and I will be considering the issue of a harassment order until then. Given the nature of the charges and the nature of the cases for which you have been convicted, you will remain in custody until that date.”

Mulholland did not turn to face his family members in the courtroom as he was led from the dock to his cells.