Published date: 11 February 2016 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A MAN threatened a woman with a baseball bat before raping her, a court heard.
A jury at Mold Crown Court, sitting at Chester, heard yesterday how Neil Bagnall, 30, had entered the woman’s home in Wrexham with Levi Matthews, 18, looking for her former partner in relation to a drug debt.
Speaking in recorded interview footage, the woman said she was awoken by a banging sound at about 3am one day in August and saw two men enter.
They asked where her former partner was and where the drugs and money were.
She told them she was not with him and there were no drugs or money there and she was an alcoholic.
The woman said the men started looking around the house and found a steak knife and a baseball bat.
She then alleged Matthews, of Sealand Avenue in Garden City, Deeside, said her former partner owed a drug dealing operation £2,500 before putting the knife to her throat and threatening to slash her throat.
Bagnall, she said, threatened to hit the woman with the baseball act and then told her he was going to have sex with her.
The woman said Matthews pointed out to Bagnall that he had a girlfriend to which he replied “what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her” and told him to leave.
When Bagnall, of Erddig Court in Wrexham, and Matthews went to the door, the woman said he saw her chance and tried to push them both out.
But Bagnall pushed against the door and they both came back in before Matthews left with the baseball bat and knife.
The woman said Bagnall then bit her cheek while trying to kiss her before ordering her to help him undress her.
Bagnall then raped the woman, who was naked from the waist down.
She said after the rape Bagnall slapped her on the backside, hurting her, before making a crude insult.
The woman then started to drink from a bottle of wine, but Bagnall snatched it from her and finished it before leaving.
She said the men were very aggressive towards her and added she had felt “degraded and embarrassed” after the alleged rape.
She added Bagnall would have known she did not want sex, as she turned her head away as he tried to kiss her. Her body was stiff and she “showed no signs of wanting to do it”.
Under cross-examination from Maria Massellis, defending Bagnall, the woman said she had been an alcoholic for about two years and had been a heavy drinker since the early 2000s.
The woman accepted she had been taken to hospital on several occasions because of mental health issues.
She added she had a heroin problem but had not taken the drug on the day of the alleged offences.
She accepted the men had made no attempt to conceal their faces and had not worn gloves.
But she denied Miss Massellis’ suggestion that the man had asked her where her partner was and she had let them in.
She also denied the suggestion that, when they said they did not believe her when she said her former partner was not there, she told them they could search her home.
Miss Massellis put it to the woman that the only reference to money was when the men told her they thought her former partner might be hiding from people who owed him money.
The woman replied that they did, and also refused Miss Massellis’ claim that the men did not ask for drugs and money.
When Miss Massellis put it to the woman that she had sat down with Bagnall and offered him the bottle of wine, she replied: “no”.
When asked why she locked the door after Bagnall came back in and Matthews had left, the woman said she “did not want the other man coming back in” as he had the baseball bat and knife.
Bagnall denies rape and both men deny burglary.
see-http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/158447/wrexham-man-alleged-to-have-threatened-woman-with-bat-before-raping-her.aspx
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