The trial of a man accused of committing a string of horrifying offences in the Highlands, including killing a kitten and threatening to cook a baby, has been adjourned amid concerns for the health of the Crown’s key witness.
The woman, who claims to have been beaten, raped and sexually assaulted by Duncan Begg on numerous occasions more than 20 years ago, broke down uncontrollably in the witness box yesterday as she was being cross examined.
Begg’s defence counsel Brian McConnachie QC started off his questioning by stating: “You are a wicked, deceitful, vindictive liar and you have been for the last 20 years. Because you have tired to get Duncan Begg into trouble for the last 20 years.”
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, cried as she swore on her father’s grave that what she had been telling the jury was the truth.
Yesterday was her second day in the witness box giving evidence at the High Court in Aberdeen against 48-year-old Begg.
He is currently on trial accused of committing 43 violent offences over a 26-year-period in Caithness between January 1984 and January 2010. Ten of charges are allegations of rape against three different women.
Begg, of 14 Cruachan Place, Portree, Skye, denies committing all of the offences and has lodged a special defence claiming that any sexual contact between him and the alleged victims was consensual.
Yesterday the woman struggled to breathe, wept and claimed she was having “flash backs” of the alleged offences as Mr McConnachie picked out a number of discrepancies in her statement to the police and the evidence she had given in court.
She said she was struggling to concentrate and said her “head was all over the place”.
On three occasions she asked for the cross examination to stop so she could have a break and on the final time Judge Morris, who is presiding over the case, called for the trial to be adjourned until today so that she could be seen by a doctor.
Judge Morris told the jurors: “The witness is giving off the appearance that she is unwell. Whether she is or she not we do not know but I have taken the authority to have her seen by a doctor overnight.
“It is unfair for the senior counsel to have to question someone who is ill because there may be an appearance that he is being mean to her and he is certainly not.”
The trial is expected to continue again this morning provided she is deemed medically fit to give evidence.
