A WOMAN has told a Royal Court jury that a former restaurant owner accused of rape and grave and criminal assault punched her in the head, throttled her and ripped out her earring during a 20-minute drunken attack.
Gavin Neil Roberts (44) denies two counts of common assault against one woman, and grave and criminal assault, rape and two counts of sexual penetration without consent against the other. He has admitted two charges of grave and criminal assault against the second woman.
Both women’s reports were made separately to the police.
Giving evidence in court yesterday, the second alleged victim described how she and Mr Roberts had sheltered from the rain outside a nightclub.
“He was drunk,” she said, adding that he had been “falling all over the place”.
“Gavin was next to me, but he was extremely drunk and he was swaying.”
Mr Roberts used abusive language towards her and attacked her, the jury heard.
“He was obviously shouting at me… he had launched himself at me and pinned me against the window,” she said.
She described how Mr Roberts had both his hands around her neck and she struggled to breathe, and that he beat her while holding her neck.
The attack lasted around 15 to 20 minutes in total, she estimated, during which time he punched her in the head and the face, ripping out her earring, the court heard.
On the night when Mr Roberts allegedly raped her, she described how she had felt disoriented despite having had only two drinks.
The defendant had had more drinks than her, she told the court. She described how Mr Roberts had become angry at the sight of an expensive drinks bill, and how she had left the scene.
“He was going to hurt me,” the alleged victim said. “Just the look I saw. I knew what was going to come next.”
She received several messages from the defendant, in which he called her behaviour “embarrassing”.
Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit, prosecuting, read out the messages.
In messages sent to a work colleague that night, she said she thought she was going to die, and she described trying to avoid the defendant, adding: “I wanted to just disappear.”
She wrote: “I think he might hurt me. Please don’t kick off. I’m really scared.”
She told the court how she recognised the look in Mr Roberts’ eyes as the same as on the night of the previous alleged assault. She described pretending to be more drunk than she really was, hoping the defendant might be “a bit more understanding”.
When she joined him at a hotel, the alleged victim said Mr Roberts had picked her up at the reception and forced her into a lift and into a room. He attacked her, she said, and raped her, again calling her names, pinning her against the window, strangling her and punching her.
She described feeling “horrendous”, crying and saying “stop” throughout the attack. Staff visited the room after a noise complaint, but she was hidden out of sight at that time. Though the attack started in the middle of the night, the alleged victim described how it went on for “a long time” – until she saw sunlight.
The Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, is presiding. The trial is scheduled to last another four days.
