{"id":21693,"date":"2026-04-25T06:48:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21693\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T06:48:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:48:47","slug":"former-highland-league-footballer-and-ex-inverness-caledonian-thistle-youth-who-played-for-strathspey-thistle-and-nairn-county-jailed-for-8-years-after-rape-and-assault-of-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21693\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Highland League footballer and ex-Inverness Caledonian Thistle youth who played for Strathspey Thistle and Nairn County jailed for 8 years after rape and assault of woman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 1294 915\" alt=\"Stephen Rennie. Picture: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"DMB0MWFULD8JKAPD5XNS.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.41\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DMB0MWFULD8JKAPD5XNS.jpg\" alt=\"Stephen Rennie. Picture: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary\"\/>Stephen Rennie. Picture: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary<\/p>\n<p>An Inverness footballer has been jailed for eight years after being found guilty of raping and assaulting a woman on the Isle of Wight.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Rennie (29) had pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and assault with penetration on October 11, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The incident took place in the Newport area on the Isle of Wight on June 24, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>At Portsmouth Crown Court on April 10, 2026, Rennie was found guilty of committing both offences by a jury following trial.<\/p>\n<p>He was sentenced to an immediate eight-year custodial term.<\/p>\n<p>Two detectives whose dedicated work helped to secure the sentence <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hampshire.police.uk\/news\/hampshire\/news\/news\/2026\/april\/officers-and-members-of-the-public-recognised-for-courage-professionalism-and-dedication-to-keeping-the-isle-of-wight-safe-at-area-commanders-awards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">were recognised at an Isle of Wight Area Commander\u2019s Awards<\/a> on April 14.<\/p>\n<p>DC Ashlea-Paige Butt and DC Daniel Cooke were praised for their \u201cdiligence and professionalism\u201d investigating the rape case.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said: \u201cTheir compassion and support of the victim, and relentless pursuit of the suspect, resulted in a Stephen Rennie, of Cypress Place, Inverness, being sentenced to eight years in prison in April 2026 for a rape reported in Newport in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former footballer Rennie, a former youth prospect with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, last played for <a href=\"https:\/\/strathspeythistlefc.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Strathspey Thistle<\/a> during the 2024\/25 season.<\/p>\n<p>He had also played in the Highland Football League for Rothes, Nairn County and Fort William and for Inverness-based North Caledonian League clubs Loch Ness and Inverness Athletic.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inverness-courier.co.uk\/news\/court-reporting-highland-news-media-fact-sheet-238723\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">  View our fact sheet on court reporting here <\/a>   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Rennie. Picture: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary An Inverness footballer has been jailed for eight years&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[141,346,5,6,5860],"class_list":{"0":"post-21693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-latest-news","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-update-me"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116464016635847419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}