Violent and controlling West Lothian rapist carved obscenities into his victim's body

A former far-right candidate who stood in two elections violently raped a woman and carved a string of slurs and obscenities into her body.

Extremist Michael Coyle also attempted to rape his victim’s daughter, subjecting her to a harrowing ordeal.

The former British Army soldier humiliated his 39-year-old victim by using a craft knife to carve obscenities into her thigh and arm. He also carved insulting terms on her breasts and across her stomach.

Tattooed Coyle, 40, who also rubbed the woman’s face against a rough wall leaving a burn-like mark on her cheek, was further convicted of wilfully ill-treating her children by forcing them to stand in a cold dark room for hours and of assaulting two of her sons by presenting a knife at them and hitting one of them on the face.

Violent and controlling West Lothian rapist Michael Coyle

He was due to be sentenced at the High Court in Livingston after being convicted by a jury at an earlier hearing.

But a specialist social work report has yet to be completed on the risk he poses to society and Coyle will now be sentenced on September 6.

Judge Alison Stirling described the violent and controlling abuser’s case as “complex and harrowing”, adjourned the case until then.

Giving evidence against Coyle the rape victim, a mother-of-five, said he didn’t allow her to go out or see friends during 13 years of torment from June 2006 till December 2019.

She said she was “on a stopwatch” any time she left the house with violent consequences if she returned late.

The woman said Coyle raped her after accusing her of cheating on him when she returned home late from a girls’ night out.

She said he sent messages from her Facebook account to a photographer who'd taken her picture in a rock pub saying: “Did I flirt with you? I can’t remember.” He then asked if the stranger was interested in her.

Then, she said, as she was lying on the couch he started hitting her in the face with his manhood.

She told the court Coyle raped her and beat her and covered her mouth to prevent her screaming.

During one attack she tried to flee from the house half naked but he rugby tackled her to the floor shattering her teeth so badly she lost four on one side of her mouth and two on the other.

Her daughter, now aged 18, testified that Coyle, a car bodyshop worker of Livingston, West Lothian, sexually assaulted her when she was around 12 or 13 years-old.

The teenager told a jury that she woke up and found him straddling her, naked from waist down, and attempting to carry out a sex act on her.

Coyle, who has had his name added to the Sex Offenders’ Register, stood for election to Westminster as the BNP candidate in Glasgow South in 2010 and fought as National Front candidate to become a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Linlithgow constituency.

He failed on both counts.

Coyle is expected to receive a considerable sentence and may be made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order or an Order for Lifelong Restriction due to the extreme nature of his crimes.