Published date: 15 February 2016 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A JURY has yet to reach a verdict in the trial of a man accused of threatening a woman with a baseball bat and raping her.
The case of Neil Bagnall, 30, of Erddig Court in Wrexham, will continue in Mold Crown Court today after Judge David Hale sent the jury home for the weekend.
During the trial, which has been sitting in Chester, jury members heard Bagnall had entered the woman’s home with Levi Matthews, 18. They were looking for her former partner, a drug dealer who had been recalled to prison days before, in relation to a debt.
Speaking in recorded interview footage, the woman said she was woken by a banging sound at about 3am one day in August and saw two men enter.
She told them 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, 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 and breasts.
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, Wrexham, and Matthews went to the door, the woman said she 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, the court was told. 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 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”.
Bagnall claimed he went to the flat to collect £20 he had lent to the woman’s former partner because he had been robbed.
The woman told him she was no longer with her partner and he was not there.
She let them in, and they chatted before she made a comment about wanting to have sex with Bagnall.
Matthews suggested having a threesome, but the woman indicated that she was only interested in Bagnall, who asked Matthews to leave.
Bagnall told Matthews that if anyone at his flat – meaning his girlfriend – asked where he was, he should say he did not know.
The younger man left and the woman gave Bagnall oral sex, Bagnall said, before he sat on the sofa, she got on top of him and they had sex.
After about five minutes he “lost his mojo” and left, he claimed.
There were no threats, said Bagnall, he knew nothing about the knife and he took the baseball bat after the woman told him he could have it.
In his case summary John Philpotts, prosecuting, said there was no doubt the woman “had her problems”. He also reminded the jury Bagnall had only ever met the woman once.
She had told the court about her alcoholism, but it was noted in evidence that she had not touched alcohol since last August.
The woman had also admitted problems with heroin and her depression, Mr Philpotts said.
He added the woman had admitted she locked herself and Bagnall in after Matthews had left.
She had told the court she wanted to stop Matthews returning, as he had the knife and baseball bat.
The woman was a “warts and all, honest witness”, Mr Philpotts said, who had remained consistent on the essential details and made her complaint “very rapidly” after the alleged offences.
She had drunk cider and wine that night, but had slept for a couple of hours before the pair arrived.
Mr Philpotts said the woman did not struggle with Matthews.
She knew what was coming as Bagnall had told her he was going to have sex with her, Mr Philpotts said.
She was on her own in the flat and had submitted, not consented.
Maria Masselis, defending Bagnall, suggested the jury would find that woman’s evidence “every much wanting”. She had given two versions of the alleged incident to police and in the witness box.
The woman first said that Bagnall had sat on the sofa, pulled her on to him and she was raped in that position. A second attempt at intercourse had failed, she had claimed.
However, in a later interview and in court, the woman had said Bagnall had only tried to penetrate her once, and that she was lying on the sofa when it happened.
She had also denied in court that she had told the police she suffered from paranoia, but Miss Masselis said that officers had taken notes of the conversation.
The woman had told the trial that she used three to four bags of heroin a day, but had not used the drug for two days at the time of the alleged incident. Miss Masselis told the jury she was not saying people with drug or alcohol problems were incapable of telling the truth.
However, there was only the word of the woman to say that she had not taken drugs that day, and she was intoxicated, Miss Masselis added.
After the alleged incident, the woman was taken for examination in Colwyn Bay, where a doctor declared her unfit to be examined.
Later that morning, the woman told the doctor that she could not remember talking to the previous doctor earlier.
She suggested that substances can make people confused or forget things that they had willingly taken part in.
Miss Masselis added Bagnall had no convictions for violence against women or sexual offences and he had been “very vocal” about his view on rape.
Paul Smith, defending Matthews, asked the jury to try not to rely on speculation or guesswork, but to judge the evidence and apply “good, old-fashioned commonsense”.
He said both witnesses said that Matthews reminded Bagnall that he had a girlfriend.
Whether or someone had a girlfriend was irrelevant in this situation, Mr Smith said.
“Rape or sexual assault do not become OK if you are not in a relationship.“
Mr Smith said just because Matthews used his right to refuse to answer questions or give evidence did not mean that the prosecution “somehow get an extra leg up in the sense that their evidence should not be considered thoughtfully, critically and with rigour”.
Judge David Hale told the jury that Matthews’ refusal to answer police questions could not be held against him.
The judge reminded the jury to consider the men’s purpose when they went to the flat.
Bagnall is charged with burglary and rape and Matthews with burglary.
Both men deny the charges against them.
see-http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/158590/verdict-awaited-on-wrexham-rape-and-burglary-trial-pair.aspx
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