A FORMER serviceman was jailed for six years after attacking and raping a woman and subjecting a second victim to repeated assaults and abuse.

Craig Marshall threatened and then raped his first victim after she was pushed and fell to the floor at a house in Fife.

The 34-year-old throttled a second woman during attacks on her at addresses in the Kingdom, including in Cardenden, and placed a snake on her body.

He also subjected the woman to a car trip where he drove at excessive speed while drinking with her as a passenger.

Marshall, formerly of Church Street, Kirkcaldy, threatened to reveal intimate images of the woman to others.

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He denied a series of charges during an earlier trial but was convicted of five offences, including assault, rape and abusive conduct committed between March 2007 and August 2021.

Judge Norman McFadyen told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: "These were serious and unpleasant offences committed against women.

"They disclose an attitude of denial and victim blaming."

Marshall began his offending while still a teenager when he assaulted a woman between March 2007 and December the following year.

During the attacks he tried to punch her, seized her by the hair and grabbed her by the throat, pushing her against a wall and threatening her.

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Marshall went on to carry out a sex attack on the woman in July 2010 after she fell. He knelt on her arms, threatened and then raped her.

He carried out further assaults on his second victim between July 2015 and December 2018 when she was kicked, pulled by the hair, throttled and had a knife put against her neck.

He also rubbed food on the woman's face and pushed her out of a house in Cardenden.

Marshall shouted and swore at her and subjected her to abusive remarks and threats of violence as well as breaking phones and furniture.

In 2021 he posted videos on social media in which he swore and made threats against both women.

Defence counsel Edward Targowski KC said that during his military career Marshall served "under combat" in Iraq which resulted in mental health problems.

He was ordered to be under supervision in the community for a further three year period when he can be returned to prison if he breaches licence conditions.

Marshall was placed on the sex offenders' register for an indefinite period.