Fife physiotherapist guilty of sex attacks on four women

A Fife physiotherapist has been found guilty of sex attacks on four women.

Derek Adams, 59, from Dunfermline, carried out the attacks over more than 20 years, from 1985, in West Lothian, Fife, and Glasgow.

Adams had denied a string of charges but was convicted of 12 offences, including two rapes, an attempted rape and an indecent assault on women.

He was also found guilty of physically assaulting four women and two children, including a two-year-old girl.

During a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, Adams was also convicted of threatening or abusive behaviour to one woman who was treated in a controlling way.

One woman told the court that after he raped her at an address in Fife he told her: "That makes us even."

The 54-year-old said she had made contact with him through an online dating site and at first he appeared "charismatic, friendly, educated and funny". She said he was working as a private physiotherapist.

But the woman said he later became "very cold" towards her and began making derogatory remarks. She said: "He would constantly tell me I was useless."

She said that Adams told her she should just kill herself. The woman told the court: "Psychologically, I just seemed to diminish."

She told the court that during the rape attack on her Adams restricted her breathing. She said: "The worst thing was not being able to breathe."

The woman said that on other occasions Adams had threatened to break her legs and kill her. She said: "He would grab me by the throat and while he was shouting abusive things he would be spitting in my face."

Adams raped the woman in January 2011 and carried out assaults on her between January 2011 and February the following year.

The woman said that on one occasion, at a Tesco store in Dunfermline in 2011, Adams lost his temper with a crying little girl and slapped her leaving a hand print on her face.

Adams abusive offending began in 1985 in the Clarkston area of Glasgow when he targeted a woman for violence.

She was thrown onto the floor, pushed, forced outside a house wearing only nightclothes and struck on the head. She was later subjected to a rape ordeal.

He also attempted to rape another woman at a house in Clarkston between 1989 and 1990.

He carried out a sex attack on another woman at a house in Winchburgh, in West Lothian, in 1996. The woman had been having a cup of tea with him but went to the bathroom and he followed her.

Prosecutor Alan Cameron told jurors the evidence produced a clear picture of a "bullying and controlling man" who was prepared to force women into sexual activity when the conditions were right.

Adams was on bail during his trial, but following his conviction was remanded in custody by the trial judge Lady Carmichael.

Sentence was deferred on him until next month for a background report.