River City actor Iain Robertson responsible of rape after telling jurors he is ‘no angel’

Iain Robertson, 45, was convicted of rape and other sexual offences following a trial – the jury heard ‘strong and overwhelming’ accounts from women about their experiences

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River City actor Iain Robertson has been found guilty of raping a woman and committing offences against two others. The 45-year-old, who played Stevie O’Hara in the BBC soap, has been found guilty of five offences, including domestic abuse, against the women between 2004 and 2019.

During his trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Robertson was referred to by witnesses as “violent” and “controlling”. He refuted a total of seven charges – including rape – involving four women between 2004 and 2020.

An eighth charge relating to one of the women was initially brought against him, but this was withdrawn by the prosecution on Wednesday, reports the Daily Record.

The rape victim’s pre-recorded testimony was played during the trial. Jurors concluded Robertson pounced on a single occasion between 2018 and 2019 as well as carrying out a separate sex assault on her. The pair had got to know each other from working together on River City.

The 36-year-old woman said she did not want anything sexual to happen, but believed Robertson, of Carbeth in Stirlingshire, did. It did, however, later become more intimate between them.

But, the woman recalled later insisting to Robertson she wanted their relationship to go back to being more platonic.

Asked by prosecutor John Keenan KC how Robertson reacted, she said he “agreed”. But the witness added: “It was a long back and forth. Iain was convinced I was in denial about having feelings for him and in denial about what I wanted.

“I do not think he believed me.”

The woman stated she felt her “boundaries were being ignored”.

She was at his then home in Glasgow at the time – she planned to sleep on the sofa, but Robertson allegedly told her she could join him in bed as “nothing would happen”.

However, the witness told Mr Keenan the actor instead allegedly “had sex” with her. She told the court: “I was lying down, I was very limp and he went on top of me.”

The woman said Robertson was naked at the time.

The woman went on to describe another incident at her flat in Glasgow.

She claimed Robertson had been upset about the “sexual aspect ending” and kicked over a table, breaking a vase. The woman said he suggested them going to see a relationship counsellor and that she “just agreed” as she did not want “the violence to escalate”.

The court heard Robertson later went into the woman’s bed. She also got in to go to sleep.

She told how the actor went on to allegedly pull her on top of him before again having sex with her. The woman stated she not want this to happen and was left feeling “very numb”.

The witness also spoke of an earlier incident when Robertson carried out an sex act on her and she “just waited for it to be over”.

Robertson had lodged a special defence that anything with the woman was consensual.

Prosecutors took the step of leading evidence of another sexual incident involving a second woman to corroborate the rape charge.

Robertson was said to have forced himself on the now 48-year-old during a get together with others in the Lake District in September 2007. Jurors did not have to deliver a verdict on this accusation.

But, this woman recalled how Robertson struck after he had gone into a mood because she had been playing a “silly” game with friends. He had sex with her without her consent in a bedroom.

Robertson was also today found guilty of engaging in a course of abusive behaviour with the rape victim.

Robertson was violent with a third female, who was a fellow actor at the time.

The 40-year-old recalled an incident in 2014 the day before she due to go to a photoshoot for acting work. Describing an argument, she told how Robertson “lunged” at her adding: “Something happened where I was cowering because I thought he was going to hit me.

“He said: ‘If you think I am going to f***ing hit you, I will’.

“I had my hands and arms over my head. I do not remember if he struck me or not.”

After she later broke up with Robertson, she described how he hounded her with an “obsessive” amount of calls and voicemails. He also bizarrely sent Graze snack boxes to theatres she was performing at after checking where she was.

Robertson was convicted of one assault charge involving this woman and cleared of another. He was further guilty of threatening and abusive behaviour towards her.

Robertson was finally found not guilty of engaging in abusive behaviour with a fourth woman.

Judge Lady Drummond deferred sentencing until July 23. In his closing speech, prosecutor John Keenan KC said the jury had heard “strong and overwhelming” accounts from the women, arguing that a recurring pattern was Robertson’s alleged “controlling, humiliating and demeaning” treatment of them.

Bafta-winning Robertson claimed any contact was consensual. He told jurors he was “no angel”, but denied all the charges against him.

Robertson was also put on the sex offenders list.