William Henry Kelly is accused of 10 rapes, four indecent assaults, two offences of causing actual bodily harm and one of doing an act against public justice.
The offences are said to have been committed against three different women over a period of time, between 2013 and 2016.
For the prosecution, Richard Butters described 46-year-old Kelly, late of the Ballawattleworth Estate in Peel, as a manipulative and controlling bully with an overwhelming sex drive.
’As you will hear, when he wants sex, he gets it, with or without the consent of the other individual.
’This man does not give a damn about the feelings of the other person, the only person he wishes to satisfy is himself,’ he said in his opening address.
Referring to the three complainants, he said: ’Each was systematically abused in the most dreadful way by this defendant.’
But Mr Butters told the jury, of six men and one woman, they should not judge the case on his opening address, but merely see it as an overview of the prosecution’s case.
The matter should be judged on the basis of the witness evidence provided by both prosecution and defence.
He told the jury the first allegation of rape happened in April 2013 when the alleged victim was in a vulnerable state having just returned home from hospital.
The second allegation of rape related to a further incident the next morning.
Two further rapes were alleged in 2013, this time involving a different woman.
On one occasion Kelly is alleged to have told the complainant: ’I could kill you if I wanted to.’
Further allegations followed involving a third alleged victim in 2014 - 16.
These included claims of physical assaults, rapes and indecent assaults in which the victim was said to have been forced to perform a sex act with the defendant.
Finally, referring to the claim the defendant had acted against public justice, Mr Butters said: ’Not only is he a violent thug who sexually assaults women but he also likes to intimidate them, to scare them.’
The latter charge, he said, related to a text allegedly sent by the defendant to a witness, a friend of one of the victims, to try and intimidate her into not giving evidence.
’This is a thoroughly violent, aggressive, manipulative rapist and the prosecution are confident that you will convict this man but ultimately the decision is yours,’ Mr Butters told the jury. The case is set to go on for three weeks and continues with the first of the prosecution witnesses giving evidence in court from behind a screen.