A WOMAN wept as she told a jury that a man had repeatedly raped and assaulted her.
She was giving evidence on the opening day of the trial in the Royal Court of 50-year-old Miguel Adelino Dos Ramos Pombo.
Mr Pombo is accused of five counts of rape and five of sexual penetration without consent. He denies the charges.
But Crown Advocate Emma Hollywood, prosecuting, said: “This was not a one-off event. She clearly said no and she was ignored.”
Speaking with the assistance of a Portuguese interpreter, the woman sobbed as she said that even when she made it clear she did not want sex, the accused would pull her legs apart and force himself on her.
She said: “When I didn’t want it he would still do it. I would say: ‘Leave me alone’ or: ‘Let me go.’ He wouldn’t say anything.”
The woman admitted that she had also had consensual sex with Mr Pombo, describing it as “normal sex”. But she added that the non-consensual activity soon followed.
Asked by Advocate Hollywood whether it was clear to Mr Pombo when she was not consenting, she said: “Yes, of course he would know.”
Earlier in the day, the jury watched a video recording of an interview the woman had given the police. She spoke in Portuguese, with English subtitles translating.
She said that Mr Pombo had raped her when she had either said no to sex or had clearly signalled through her body language that she was not consenting, by turning away from him and keeping her legs together.
She also alleged that he had sexually penetrated her in different ways, despite her refusal and complaints that it was painful.
“I was feeling fear,” she said. “In my heart I thought it was abuse.”
Questioning her about her previous consensual relations with Mr Pombo, Advocate Greg Herold-Howes, defending, asked her: “Was there a formal conversation before every act of intimacy?”
She said: “No, there was no conversation.”
He asked: “How did Mr Pombo know you did not consent if you didn’t verbally say so?”
She replied: “If I was keeping my legs closed and turning my back to him that meant I didn’t want it.”
The trial is expected to run until Friday. Commissioner Patricia Lees is presiding.
