Sickness beneficiary denies rape charge

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 13

Sickness beneficiary denies rape charge

After drinking for several hours in the Fitzgerald Arms Tavern, a woman, who had had a series of rows with her de facto husband, went with a man she had never met before to his room where she was beaten up and raped, Mr Justice Cook and a jury were told in the High Court yesterday. John Frederick King, aged 29, a sickness beneficiary, has pleaded not guilty to charges of raping a woman, aged 36, and assaulting her. The case will finish today. Scientific evidence was given that no seminal stains were found on any of the exhibits.

Miss E. H. B. Thompson appears for King. For the Crown, Mr D. J. L. Saunders said that on the morning of Thursday, July 4, the complainant went to the Fitzgerald Arms after an argument with her de facto husband. They were drinking at separate tables and during the next few hours had a further dispute.

About mid-afternoon her husband left to go to the Social Welfare Department and King asked her to go to a party. They left the hotel

late in the afternoon and walked to a house in Kilmore Street where he had an upstairs room. Before going upstairs they spoke to Murray Fell who had a room on the ground floor and was watching television at about 6.30 p.m. King introduced the woman to him.

Some 20 minutes later Mr Fell heard a woman yell: “Help” from the top of the stairs and shortly after there was a crash like someone falling down the stairs.

The woman he had been introduced to a short time before arrived in Mr Fell’s room in a panic. She wanted to know the way out, and was distressed and in tears.

After running out of the house the woman scaled two large fences before flagging down a woman motorist in Kilmore Street to whom she made a complaint of rape. She was taken to a neighbouring dairy and the police were called.

Evidence would be given by the woman that when they went to King’s room he asked her to take her jacket off. He then ordered her to remove all her clothing and began hitting her about the face.

He removed her trousers, lay on top of her and committed the offence, Mr Saunders said. King was in a bad mood and while they were on the bed struck her nose, making it bleed. King got off the bed and urinated in the handbasin while she went to the toilet and made her escape.

When the woman was examined by a doctor he found injuries on her face and vaginal area. King was seen by the

police and he denied having any woman in his room that evening and had not had intercourse that day. He produced a doctor’s note stating that he could not have intercourse until he had an operation. On being arrested on a charge of rape King said: “Not guilty.” The complainant said in evidence that she and her de facto husband had had a row that morning when he told her that he did not care about her and that upset her. He went to the Fitzgerald Arms before she did and she drank beer with some of the girls.

During the afternoon King joined her group and asked her to go to a party at his place.

“I didn’t agree to go to his place but he said that I had to go with him,” the complainant said.

It was late in the afternoon when they left the hotel and walked some distance until they came to a two-storey house. “When we got into the room the guy locked the door. I heard the snip click. He told me to take my jacket off but I didn’t want to because I had keys in the pocket. He told me that if I didn’t take it off I would be in big trouble,” said 'the woman.

The defendant started to get angry with her and she was scared so she took off the jacket. He forced her on to the bed and started hitting her. He struck her on the right side of the face and on the hose which bled. He made her take her clothes off and he removed his trousers. “He forced me to have sex with him. I was so

scared what else could I do? I did not want to have intercourse with him when I went to the flat. I was struggling but did not call out for help at the time,”, said the woman.

To Miss Thompson the complainant said that her de facto husband was an alcoholic and had come home drunk the previous night and they had a row. King had forced her to go to his place by holding her hand. She denied that they had walked along Fitzgerald. Avenue with their arms round each others’ waist.

Couldn’t you have run off on the journey? — Yes, I tried that too and I told him to leave me alone.

Didn’t you think of screaming out or wrenching your hand away? — I tried to pull my hand away. The woman said that she had not mentioned her efforts to get away from King when she gave evidence for the Crown because she had not been asked. She did not recall being introduced to a man at the house.

Why didn’t you say something to this man about this forced march? — Like I said, I was pretty scared. Would you regard yourself as having been affected by alcohol on this afternoon? — No, I wasn’t. One witness will give evidence that he thought you had had a few too many? — That is his impression as I know how much I had to drink.

Is it not true that you went quite voluntarily to King’s room? — No, I didn’t. Is it not the case that he resisted your advances and you felt pretty upset so you concocted this story? — That is not true.