Man accused of attack

Press, 5 October 1984, Page 9

Man accused of attack

PA Wellington A woman taxi driver, after she had been raped, beaten and locked in the boot of her cab, said she heard her attacker say she would stay there until she died, the District Court was told yesterday. The woman, from Wellington, gave evidence at the depositions hearing in Lower Hutt when Lester Alexander McCuish, aged 26, unemployed, appeared before Messrs R. Wheeler and Mr E. Gettins, Justices of the Peace.

McCuish is charged indictably with rape, kidnapping, and causing grievous bodily harm to the woman. He is also charged with stealing a change wallet and a purse containing $lO9. The offences are alleged to have occurred on August 13 at Wainuiomata.

Mr M. A. Bungay appeared for McCuish, and Sergeant B. Bull for the police. Sergeant Bull said there would be 32 witnesses, but only one witness would be called, the complainant, and the rest would be admitted by statement. The woman said she had

been at the Cambridge Terrace taxi stand when McCuish got into the cab at 2 a.m. and told her to go to Wainuiomata. He said he knew the fare was about $3O, but it would be a bit more this time, as he wanted to go to the back of Wainuiomata. The woman said she drove over the Wainuiomata Hill Road and down the coast road. McCuish asked the woman to stop the car. He got out and stood by a fence for a few minutes before returning to the car. “He ripped the mike off its wires, and he asked for my car keys,” she said. “He took them and asked me to switch the meter off. “He said that he was going to rape me, and he asked me where I wanted it, where I wanted to be raped.” The woman said she told him: On the beach. She said that on the way to the beach, there was a fence, and she thought that she would have a chance of escaping, as only one person could get over at a time. “He opened my door and helped me out. He took me by the arm. He asked me

what about here, and I said: ‘No, too muddy.’ “We kept on walking toward the fence, then he said it was going to be there.”

The woman said there was a struggle. “He hit me with my shoe. Then he kicked me twice, the first time in the left side of the head, and the second in my jaw, where he had hit me with the shoe.

“The next thing I knew, was travelling over a gravel road very fast, by the sound of it. I didn’t know where I, was, I couldn’t see where I was, it was dark. The next thing I remember was a noise, a grating sound, on the side of the car.

“He said he was cleaning the car off so the cops couldn’t get him. The car had stopped.”

She said McCuish came and opened the boot and stood there. “I was trying to get out, and he hit me in the face and pushed me back in and slammed the boot. “He said the cops couldn’t get him because he was going overseas, and that I would stay there until I died. “I never heard from him-

again.” She said she kept blacking out and at one stage thought she was dreaming. She didn’t know what the time was.

“I knew I had to get air, so I started peeling back the rubber of the boot with the tyre lever.”

The woman said she finally managed to free herself by breaking the boot lock, but when she got out she still did not know where she was.

She said she went toward a woman who was walking her dogs, and the woman told her to sit down while she went to get help. At the end of prosecution evidence, Mr Bungay said there would be no evidence offered by the defence, and no cross-examination of the witness. At the conclusion of evidence the justices found there was a case to answer. McCuish pleaded not guilty to all charges and was remanded, in custody, until November 5 at the Wellington High Court for trial.