Brierfield teenager denies raping pensioner

The incident happened at a house in Nelson on October 28th last year following a night drinking vodka and Red Rooster in the town centre after the defendant had attended mosque, it has been claimed.

After leaving his friends around midnight, Burnley Crown Court heard the 17-year-old had taken a different route home to avoid his family seeing him drunk.

It was claimed he let himself into the 64-year-old woman’s house where he attacked her. The defendant, from Brierfield, has denied two counts of rape, one of attempted rape and one of assault by penetration.

The victim, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said she had been watching television in her front room around 1-30 a.m. when she heard a noise from the kitchen.

The 999 call made to the emergency services at 5-20 a.m. after the attack heard the woman reporting the crime.

“I had a burglar and a sexual assault,” she said. “I did not let him in, he came through the back door. I went into the kitchen and I saw someone.

“He picked up a bread knife and then asked me to give him another knife. I just wondered what he wanted - money or something.”

She said the attack had lasted around two hours and although she had tried to telephone for help when he had gone into an adjoining room, he had returned and she was unable to press call.

The court heard the teenager had taken her to an upstairs bedroom where she claimed he made her take off her clothes while holding the bread and chef’s knife. He pushed her onto the bed and ordered her to perform a sex act on him.

The defendant claimed the sex was all consensual and the woman invited him in after hearing him being sick outside her property. He said she gave him a drink of juice and they talked for a few minutes before he told her he was going to be sick and she directed him to the upstairs toilet. After falling asleep in the bedroom he said he woke up to find her next to him and they talked before having consensual sex.

He said: “I was vomiting. She goes to me I need some rest and tells me to lie down. When I woke up it was pitch black. She had her arm on my stomach. I asked her, there was no force, it was all consensual.”

Miss Libby Nichols (prosecuting) said: “You wanted to make sure she was alone. You were threatening and you picked up that knife to threaten, you forced her to go upstairs.”

The defendant’s DNA was recovered from the two knife handles and a palm print was found on the blade of the bread knife.

Mr Ian Metcalfe (defending) said the DNA could have been a result of cross contamination and there was no way of knowing how long his palm had been on the blade and could have been a result of incidental touching.

Asking the victim why she did not try to escape, the woman said: “I was frightened, frozen inside”. She described the youth as “being on a different planet”.

She said she had not called the police immediately as she had been in a zombie like state and had felt “exhausted”.