A MAN has been accused of raping a woman and her teenage sister in Lochgelly.

Darrell Swanson is on trial at the High Court in Livingston accused of raping a Fife woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on numerous occasions between 2004 and 2013, at various addresses in the area.

The woman sent her alleged rapist to seek medical help for “sexsomnia” after he told her the morning after that he couldn’t remember having intercourse with her, a jury heard yesterday.

The 36-year-old NHS worker claimed she awoke on half a dozen occasions to find the man having sex with her.

The mum of three said she saw Swanson had his eyes open when she turned to stop him having intercourse without her consent.

But when she challenged him about the incidents the following day he claimed he didn’t remember them happening, she told the court.

Her initial belief that Swanson might be suffering from the rare disorder which causes people to engage in sexual behaviours – often with other people – while asleep changed when he answered her one night.

She said: “What put a massive seed of doubt in my head was when he spoke to me, when he told me: 'That’s how you want to finish this'.”

“It wasn’t like something that happened night after night, or week after a week. There was a period of time between each time it happened.

“After the third time it happened I jumped online. I thought there was something going on here.

"I’d come to the conclusion this was something he did on his sleep and had no control over it. There wasn’t very much I could do to stop it.”

She added: “It was the same situation, in bed, through the night. I’d wake up to the exact same scenario happening again. It was just so sporadic, I wish I could give dates times and months but it was just so random, just random.

“Every time it happened I would say: ‘It’s happened again last night’. Again he would just say he didn’t remember, he didn’t remember.

“His eyes were opened, but it was on only one occasion he answered. The rest of the time he didn’t speak. I remember when he pulled away he said he didn’t finish.

“He obviously insinuated that if I didn’t let him ejaculate he was going to be sore because of that.”

Curious about what was happening, the woman said she Googled ‘having sex in the night and not remembering’.

She said: “I found a condition people were calling sexsomnia. I thought that must be it. That’s the answer. That’s what it must be.

“I said to Darrell: ‘This is what I think you might have. I think you should go and speak to a doctor about it.’ He did go and speak to the GP and he was referred onwards from there.

“Before the last time I just wanted him to get help. I tried everything. But when it happened the last time it was like something snapped in me and I thought I don’t want this, I’m not doing this anymore.”

Swanson, 39, of West Cromwell Street, Edinburgh, is charged with sexually assaulting the woman and raping her while she was asleep and incapable of consenting at addresses in the Lochgelly area of Fife between 2004 and 2013.

He is also accused of indecently assaulting and raping the woman’s 15-year-old sister while she was intoxicated and unable to give consent also in the Lochgelly area and sending her indecent sexual messages through social media in Kinglassie when she was aged 24.

The trial, before Lady Poole, continues.