Flint taxi driver accused of raping young woman passenger in ChesterA TAXI driver picked up a drunk student before raping her in an empty house he owned, a jury has heard.
Sultan Amari, 46, of Chester Road, Flint, picked up the young woman in Chester city centre and took her to the property on Sealand Road last July.
But he denies two counts of rape, saying the complainant consented to having sex with him twice on his blow-up bed.
Prosecuting on the first day of the trial yesterday, Simon Mills told the jury of seven women and five men that on Saturday, July 11, 2015 the woman had met a friend for an after-work drink in the city.
Mr Mills told Warrington Crown Court: “The two of them had a fair bit to drink and then they separated to go to their own homes just after 9.30pm.
“(The complainant) says she has no memory leaving the last bar they were in until she came to, briefly, completely naked in a house she didn’t know, with no furniture in it apart from an air mattress on which she was laying face down.
“She could hear the voice of a foreign man who she felt was having sex with her. He was trying to get a verbal response from her.”
During the hearing, the court was shown video footage of the woman during police interview.
She identified Amari as the man she accused of raping her twice that night and told detectives how she had been ‘pinned’ and could not move her arms or legs. When asked if she had consented to sex, she said: “I don’t know, I couldn’t move. Physically I didn’t think it was something I wanted.”
The woman awoke around 8.30am in the house on Sealand Road which contained no furniture and was completely empty.
Mr Mills said: “When she came to again she was on her own in the house. She found clothes but she couldn’t find her bag.”
He said that it was a fact that they had sex twice, at about 10.30pm and 2.30am.
After both times, Amari returned to work as a taxi driver, leaving the woman in his house which he owned but didn’t live in.
Scientific tests of her blood and urine revealed that the ‘petite’ young woman could have been twice over the legal driving limit when the first act happened and around the legal limit during the second act.
A trace of methadone was also found in her blood, the explanation for which, Mr Mills said, was a ‘mystery’ as she had never taken it or been prescribed the heroin substitute.
Judge Tina Landale, the jurors and the rest of the court heard how the woman searched the house for her bag but could not find it.
She then unsuccessfully knocked on neighbouring houses in search of help.
Mr Mills said: “She was confused and disorientated and was wandering down Sealand Road in Chester.
“She was met by a man who saw she was upset, told her where she was and he let her use his mobile phone to call emergency services.”
Amari drove along Sealand Road and saw the woman on the floor in a distressed state.
Mr Mills told the court: “He pulled over to the kerb and she was asking where the bag was and he said it was still in the house.
“The defendant was in possession of her Kindle tablet device and he handed it over and then the defendant drove away.”
Amari drove back to where the woman was slumped on the roadside and returned her bag.
Police arrived and spoke with the woman and arrested Amari on suspicion of rape.
The defendant, who was living in Colwyn Close, Ellesmere Port at the time, initially picked up the woman on Bridge Street and when he asked her where she wanted to go she said, ‘take me anywhere’, the court heard.
Mr Mills said: “He took that as she wanted to have sex. He told police he considered taking her to a hotel but he took her to his house he owned.
“He says she made it very clear that she wanted to have sex and he said she had consented to full... intercourse. He says she gave every sign and was ‘enthusiastic’ about it.
“But the prosecution say that she didn’t give the defendant licence or excuse to do to her whatever he wanted to in his home.”
Proceeding.
source:
http://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/1 ... ester.aspx