Man jailed for raping woman in Kirkcaldy park
A man who raped a woman in a Fife park has been jailed for seven years.
Steven Burns, 43, from Kirkcaldy, had claimed that the 31-year-old woman was a willing partner.
But a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh found him guilty of raping the woman in an attack on 29 October 2011.
The court heard that the woman had been in Kirkcaldy's Thornhill Drive when Burns pulled her along by the hair and attacked her.
Burns claimed he was having an illicit affair with the woman for months, behind her lover's back.
He said she agreed to have sex with him on a patch of marshy, wet ground.
An earlier trial heard how police found the "distressed" woman with leaves, twigs and dirt in her hair and clothes.
She was crying hysterically and looked as though she had been dragged through a hedge, the court was told.
Judge Lord Glennie told Burns: "You appear to show no awareness of the impact on your victim.
"I know you maintain your innocence and that the intercourse was consensual, but the jury have rejected that line of defence and I have to sentence you on the jury's finding."
Solicitor advocate Chris Fyffe, defending, said Burns had a problem with alcohol.