Men deny raping woman in flat

Press, 1 April 1982, Page 4

Men deny raping woman in flat

A married woman was forced to drive two men to a flat in Fitzgerald Avenue where they threatened her with .a butcher’s knife, stripped and raped her, Mr Justice Casey and a jury were told in the High Court yesterday.. Dallas’ Stewart Tahere, aged 37, and David William Radley Rota, aged 32, both unemployed, have pleaded not guilty to a joint , charge of raping a woman, aged 31, on September 12. Mr S. G. Erber appears for the Crown, Mr G. E. Langham for Tahere and Mr S C. Barker for Rota.

The trial will finish today.

A woman said that she left the Tavern Rachael to go home after having invited a group of friends for coffee. She got in the driver's seat of her car when a hand appeared on the door. She looked up and saw two men.

Tahere leaned across her and opened the passenger door. He had his hand on the back of her neck. Tahere sat in the centre and Rota got in beside him.

They instructed her to drive them to an address in Somerfield Street but when there was no-one there she was ordered to take them to

Tahere’s brother’s place in Fitzgerald Avenue. She said that her husband and son were waiting for her at home.. She was still being held by the hair. As she stopped the car in Fitzgerald Avenue she looked in the rear vision mirror and saw a car approaching. She put her feet: on the ground with the intention of jumping out in front of the car when Rota got out, raced round, gave her a kick and told her to get back in the car. They pulled her out through the passenger side door and took her up a drive to a flat. Tahere held her by one arm and had his hand over her mouth while Rota walked behind them. Inside she was ordered to take off her clothes.

On first going into the bedroom she saw someone and she asked him to help her but he just turned his back on her.

She asked to go to the toilet because she thought it might give her an opportunity to escape from them but it proved to be a bathroomtoilet combined. She was in there for about five minutes before they pulled her out.

Tahere threw her on to the bed and had intercourse with

her, the woman said. He used force and said that she had to do what she was told or “this will be the end.” She just asked him not to do it. Rota pushed her into the bedroom and on to a mattress on the floor by a single bed. She tried to knee him in the groin but he had intercourse with her. At that time Tahere was in the kitchen.

Leaving the bedroom she went to get her clothes when Tahere said: “Where are you going? We haven’t finished.” He pushed her back on the bed and again had intercourse with her.

Tahere had produced a white-handled butcher's knife with a curved blade, held it out towards her and said: “It will be the -end.” Rota had intercourse with her for. the second time, because she was naked she wrapped and bedspread round herself. Tahere, who had been eating, came in and told , her to pour a beer and she did so. After he had finished eating Tahere jumped in to the single bed and she sat on the foot of the bed sipping the beer slowly.

“I could see that he was dozing off and was hoping that he would fall asleep,

which he did. I put my underwear on, picked up the rest of my clothes and ran for the car,” the woman said. As she was going out the gate she tripped and fell. On looking up she saw the number on the letter box was 271. Driving round the corner into Bealey Avenue she

stopped and put the rest of her clothes on. Then she drove home without her lights on in the hope that she would be picked up by a traffic officer. When she arrived home at 2.30 a.m. she woke her husband and told him that she had been raped. She was in a bad state. The money was missing from her blazer

pocket and had been placed with screwed up newspaper. “I had never been in that flat. before and I did not know or had never met ■either of the two accused before that evening. I had no choice when they had intercourse with me,” the woman said.