One of the King's former horsemen is facing jail after being found guilty of raping three teenage trainee instructors at a top Scottish residential riding school.
James Christopher Armour, known as
Chris, now 57, was home on periods of leave when he raped three girl
trainees, aged 17 to 19, who were living in the yard, in Fife, in the
1980s.
The High Court in Stirling heard on Thursday Monday 23, how the prestigious school, the Dunvegan Equestrian Centre, Newburgh, was then run by his stepmother Jane Armour, who was a highly regarded dressage judge and 'trainer of trainers'.
The bombardier in the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, served for nine years with the King's troop - famous for its horse teams that pull 13-pounder guns on royal state occasions, take part in Trooping the Colour, and mount guard on Horse Guards Parade.
He also represented Britain as an Army showjumper, and continued eventing in civilian life.
And in 2010, he even made the cover of Horse & Hound magazine.
But in the high court, it was heard how Armour's victims carried 'dark memories' with them of what he did for decades.
In 2019, one of them saw a TV advert for Rape Crisis and contacted the police who launched 'Operation Cliftok' to probe the abuse of the girls at the centre.
The woman, who is now also 57, told the court that in 1983, Armour - then a complete stranger whom she'd never met or even seen before - had suddenly walked into a stable where she was working, kicked her between the legs, 'shoved' her against the wall, and raped her.
Over the next two years, he went on to rape her frequently when on leave - on the stable floor, on the kitchen floor, and in her bedroom at the centre's three-storey mansion, Dunvegan House, grabbing her breasts and punching her in the stomach.
And on one occasion, he came up behind her while she was washing horses' bits in a tack room sink, hit her on the bottom with a riding crop, then grabbed her by the hair and held her head under the taps for 'minutes', before pulling off her jodhpurs and raping her.
She said: 'I felt sick. I was just crying all the time.'
His second victim, now a 59-year-old farmer, said she was at the centre in the last quarter of 1985 when she was woken from sleep by her bedroom floorboards squeaking.
Armour came in, put his hand over her mouth and told her to be silent, before pulling back the bedcovers, and raping her. He then turned her over and raped her again, anally.
After he finished, he left, and she staggered to the bathroom, bleeding and in pain.
Explaining why she had not reported the rape then, or challenged Armour at the time, she said: 'I was scared.
'I was a naive young girl.
'It was the start of my career.
'If I'd opened my mouth I'd not have had 30 to 40 years with horses. That's what I thought.'
She added: 'In those days there wasn't any help. You shut up. You blocked it out. You got on with your life.
'You didn't talk about those things.'
Armour's third victim - who was also raped in her bedroom in Dunvegan House in the late '80s, when she was 17 - was studying for her British Horse Society Assistant Instructor Certificate (BHSAI).
Now 53, she said Armour came in, smelling of drink, and they began consensually kissing. However, then he got on top of her and raped her, despite her trying to push him off and repeatedly saying 'no'.
Clearly distressed giving evidence, she told the jury she had 'shut it all down at the time'.
She said: 'I think it was a survival instinct. It was embarrassing. I didn't think for one moment I'd be believed.'
Armour, who was living when the trial began at an Army veterans' home in Congleton, Cheshire, denied the rapes.
He went on to claim in evidence that all the women were 'fantasists', saying he'd never had sex with the first woman as 'she wasn't the prettiest thing in the world.'
He claimed he had never met the second woman, and that intercourse with the third had been consensual, adding: 'I left her satisfied.'
After a five-day trial, jurors
took three hours to find Armour guilty of all three rapes, which were
committed between March 1983 and June 1989.
He showed no emotion as the verdict was returned on March 23.
Judge Lord Young deferred sentence until April 25th at the High Court in Edinburgh, and revoked bail.
He said: 'Give the seriousness of these matters he will be remanded in custody.'
Armour, who has previous convictions for battery in England, was also placed on the sex offenders' register.
Gary Allan KC, defending, reserved mitigation.
Referring to the initial call to the police, prosecutor Chris Fyffe KC said one woman's 'Me Too' moment had 'shone a torch on the dark memories all three women had held, and struggled to come to terms with... for over 35 years'.
He added that Armour, 'a muscular young solider', and had 'used his physical attributes to overpower girls at Dunvegan for his own sexual gratification, taking what he wanted regardless of their wishes'.
Mr Fyffe also said the victims had given 'clear and compelling accounts' of being raped by Armour.
