Accused ‘smirked and then carried on’

A MAN accused of raping a woman “simply smirked” when she asked him to stop, a jury has been told.

Grezgorz Hartmann is on trial at the High Court i n Aberdeen, accused of assaulting and raping the woman at an address i n Dundee.

He had originally been facing two rape charges, but on Wednesday the Crown withdrew one relating to a date in September 2017.

However, he remains accused of biting and strangling the woman, “gagging” her during foreplay and causing her injury with a further sex act. Hartmann denies the charge.

Yesterday, the prosecution and defence gave their closing statements to the jury.

Advocate depute Bernie Ablett said: “The accused had her (the complainer) on her back where he was forcing her knees to her shoulders.

“She experienced a lot of pain and she was petrified. She said ‘no’, ‘don’t’ and ‘stop’. The accused simply smirked and carried on.

“You heard evidence from her daughter and her friend who described her as hysterical and hyperventilating. That she was taking 12 breaths per word.”

Mr Ablett also reminded the jury of previous evidence provided by Dr Shubakkar Karra Paul, who examined the complainer after the alleged incident and noted fresh injuries.

Defence advocate Chris Fyffe asked the jury to “scrutinise” the evidence provided by the witnesses.

He suggested the jury should consider if the complainer was “consistent” when she gave evidence to the court.

Mr Fyffe said: “Initially, she said everything that happened in the bedroom was non-consensual.

“By the end of her evidence, she said vaginal sex was consensual and then she said nothing in the bedroom was consensual.”

My Fyffe referred back to the text messages sent by Hartmann to the woman after the alleged incident.

The messages after he was thrown out were: ‘You lock door?’, ‘Talk to me, please’, ‘I worry, please do not treat me like that’.

“These are the messages that show he did not know he had done anything wrong.”

Judge Buchanan was expected to finish his speech this morning before the jury retired to consider their verdict.

The High Court in Aberdeen.