I can do what I want...
Boasts of Army physical trainer accused of two rapes and sex assault
A BRITISH soldier raped two women and sexually assaulted another while telling one victim: ‘I can do what I want,’ a court heard.
Lance Corporal Lee Busano, 28, overpowered a 29-yearold student in her home after she tried to rebuff his sexual advances.
As she pleaded for him to stop the attack, it was alleged, he likened her to ‘a stripper’.
The court heard that after raping his first victim, physical training inspector Busano laughed at her and then went for a workout at a gym.
Just days later the soldier allegedly attacked another woman, sitting on her and headbutting her in the face a number of times, causing cuts to her nose.
The jury was told the soldier then raped her while telling her: ‘I can do what I want.’
He is accused of sexually assaulting a third woman months later. He climbed on top of her and put his hands up her shorts, dragging her back when she tried to escape, the court heard.
Busano, who is based at Weeton Army Barracks in Lancashire, appeared in the dock at Preston Crown Court wearing his full army uniform.
He denied two counts of rape and one of sexual assault.
Timothy Ashmole, prosecuting, told the jury that Busano had raped the first woman in March last year. He said the soldier was able to control his victims ‘not only physically, but verbally and emotionally’.
The court heard the first attack took place when Busano turned up at the woman’s house, she let him in and he tried to kiss her.
Mr Ashmole said: ‘She rebuffed his advances. She made it quite clear she was in a relationship. Not content with what he was hearing, he made his way up the stairs to the bedroom.
‘He tried to kiss her, once again
‘Repeatedly told him to stop’
she spurned his advances.’ The court was told Busano then pulled down her knickers as she repeatedly told him to stop, saying: ‘I don’t want to do this.’
Mr Ashmole told the court: ‘She maintained and meant no. The defendant should have stopped. She continued to tell him to stop.
‘She was by this stage physically struggling against him – you see he is a strong, tall, wellbuilt young man.
‘She did at one stage try to strangle him to get him off her and even managed to headbutt him. She said to him, “It’s rape if you do this”.’ In video evidence, the student told the court: ‘I had a dress on. He said I looked like a stripper. He was laughing and joking, quite hyper. He didn’t seem to have had a drink.
‘He was pushing me down, pulling my dress up. I said, “I don’t want to do this”. He is a lot stronger than me.
‘I kept saying, “No means no”. He was trying to push himself on me. I tried to strangle him.
‘I really tried to squeeze as much as I could … I headbutted him. He just laughed, he thinks it’s funny. I was crying as well. I said, “It’s rape if you do this. If you keep trying to do this it’s rape.”’
She added that she had been prescribed diazepam after the attack and told the court: ‘I wish I had killed him when I strangled him. I have cried so much.’
The jury heard Busano carried out his next attack just a week later, and in November last year he allegedly punched a third woman in the face before pushing her down, climbing on top of her and sexually assaulting her.
The trial continues.