Rape threat fulfilled

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 10

Rape threat fulfilled

NZPA-PA When James Pollard raped Zoe Wade he warned her not to contact the police or he would kill her, a British Court was told yesterday. , . „ But she did, and two years later Pollard kept his promise. He returned, raped her again, and strangled her. Pollard then set fire to Miss Wade’s house and called the fire brigade from a pub while he was having a pint with a friend, the police alleged. Pollard’s trial in a Bradford court was told that Miss Wade, aged 40, was a timid spinster. When she told the police

of the original attack they arrested Pollard, then aged 26, and he was jailed for 4% years. But he was released on parole after two years. The police alleged that he laid in wait for the woman and forced her upstairs to her bedroom, where he raped and strangled her. According to a statement Pollard allegedly made to the police he then smoked a cigarette and dropped the lighted match near the bed. He allegedly went to a friend’s house and then later, on the way to a pub, saw flames coming from Miss Wade’s home.

At the pub he phoned the fire brigade and then drank with his friends.