Woman tells jury of knife rape fear

Leeds Crown Court heard the attack happened so suddenly she could not fight back and she believed her attacker would kill her when he said he had a knife and threatened her.

Lee Martin, 40, has gone on trial accused of the sex attack after a cold case review allegedly linked his DNA to evidence preserved at the time. Martin, of Averingcliffe Road, Bradford denies raping the woman, then aged 20, on May 14, 1988.

Jamie Hill QC, prosecuting, told the court the police trail had gone cold until last year when swabs kept by the Forensic science Service were subjected to the latest DNA techniques.

Semen samples had revealed a full profile at the time of the original inquiry but no match was made. The same profile was again found last year but this time Martin was on the DNA database after being arrested for being drunk and disorderly in 2001.

Mr Hill told the jury there was a one in a billion chance it was anybody else's semen.

After he was arrested in May last year, Martin said in a statement he could not remember his whereabouts for that night and whether he had sex with a female. "I had a large number of sexual partners at this time in my life."

He insisted: "I deny rape. Any sex I may have had would have been with consent."

The woman, who was speaking from behind screens, told the jury yesterday that at the time of the attack she was living in the nurses' home at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford, and working at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

On the night of Friday May 13 she went out with a friend to some pubs and ended up at the Blue Lace nightclub. She thought she was probably drinking halves of cider, telling the jury: "I wasn't a heavy drinker."

Her friend's boyfriend turned up at the club and the pair left together, leaving her alone. "I was a bit miffed," she said. "She must have known he was coming and it cut the night a bit short."

She remained only a few more minutes before deciding to walk back to the home off Little Horton Lane. She was not concerned about doing that, adding "I never thought it was a safety issue, to be fair."

She told the jury she was only minutes from the home when a man suddenly came up to her and began chatting, asking if she had had a good night. "He just came from nowhere." She was talking to him but carried on walking.

She had not seen him before but at that stage was not feeling any concern. As she turned on to the path leading to the nurses' home, however, he turned in as well.

"I said 'you don't live here' and that's when it started." She said he grabbed her and dragged her into the bushes.

"It happened so fast, I still can't believe it, that I couldn't fight him off. Before I could, he dragged me down on to the floor. He threatened me and said he would kill me."

She told the jury the man said he had a knife but she never saw one.

She heard some people speaking nearby but he put his hands over her mouth so she could not attract attention.

"I think I froze. I really thought he was going to carry out his

threat."

He then raped her. She told the jury she could remember her head pressing against the branches, muck and roots on the ground. "It seemed like forever. "

Eventually he ran off.

Guy Kearl QC, defending, put it to her: "You hadn't just been picked up by this man and the two of you had gone into the grounds and had sex together," he asked, adding "Then regretted it afterwards."

The woman replied: "I got raped 22 years ago. I'm having to relive it now and that's why I'm here.

"I wouldn't be here today if it was a casual fling ..."

The trial continues.