My screams did not stop rapist ... and nobody came to help me
Student tells of her terror after porn-obsessed teen attacked her with paving slab
A STUDENT who was brutally attacked and raped told a court she was haunted by the fact her screams went unanswered as her attacker was jailed for life yesterday.
Charlie Pearce, who was ‘fixated’ with violent porn, bludgeoned the woman over the head with a paving slab and raped her on his 17th birthday in July last year, before leaving her to die.
The ‘ animalistic’ teenager had denied meaning to kill the victim but admitted two counts of rape, causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and stealing her handbag, which he later burned.
Following a trial at Leicester Crown Court last year, he was found guilty of attempted murder, having left his victim’s life ‘hanging by a thread’.
Yesterday the victim, who cannot be named, said she had been ‘mentally and physically scarred’ by her ordeal. Before sentencing at the Old Bailey, she said in a statement: ‘I do not remember screaming when I was assaulted though I am aware that screams were reported to the police by various people that night.
‘My screams did not stop my attacker from causing me further harm and nor did they help me be found so I could receive the medical care I needed.
‘Knowing that my screams did not change anything for me that night continues to trouble me.’
She described how her life had been ‘put on hold by Charlie Pearce’s criminal actions’.
She added: ‘ The six months which have now passed since I was discharged from hospital amounts to an ongoing period of time that can never be gotten back, time which has been taken from me and from how I live my life, without my permission and against my wishes.
‘I am reminded on a daily basis, and sometimes multiple times a day, of the extensive trauma my body has endured and my mind cannot remember happening.’
The woman said she still suffers from jaw pain, loss of hearing and has bald patches – all ‘physical reminders of the damage that was done to me by a complete stranger when I was walking home’.
She went on: ‘I am mentally scarred as well as physically scarred. I have had thoughts about hurting myself and ending my life.’
The court heard Pearce had dragged the victim into undergrowth in Leicester’s Victoria Park at around 11.30pm on July 3 and hit her over the head with a concrete slab.
The start of his attack was witnessed by youths nearby who called police. But officers were unable to find anything because of
‘Animalistic savagery’
a lack of a precise location. An hour later, a cyclist spotted blood and a hair clip on the ground.
The judge said the female cyclist showed great bravery in going into the bushes to investigate and comfort the victim until emergency services arrived. The victim, aged in her 20s, was taken to hos- pital with horrific head injuries. The following day, police circulated a ‘ remarkably clear’ CCTV image of Pearce running towards her with the slab.
His family recognised him and called police. The victim awoke from a coma weeks later, unaware of what had happened.
Sentencing Pearce to life in prison with a minimum term of 11 years yesterday, Judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said he was ‘exceptionally dangerous’ and attacked the woman with ‘animalistic savagery’. He added that Pearce had carried out a ‘ predatory attack’ and had ‘intended to silence the victim for ever’.
He told the court: ‘The defendant set out that evening to mark his 17th birthday to find a woman to attack and violently rape. He can be seen on CCTV circling the park and hunting the victim down as she walked through it. The attack was of animalistic savagery.’
In mitigation, Phillip Bradley QC said: ‘She was the innocent victim of violence that was as gratuitous as it was unprovoked.’ He said Pearce accepted he was ‘entirely responsible’ for that violence.
At last year’s court hearing, Gordon Aspden, prosecuting, described how the teenager had a ‘fixation with violent rape,’ adding: ‘You’ve seen the internet searches; it’s a disturbing fixation manifested in his interest to look at warped pornography and violent assault of helpless young women.
‘An attack of this type had been festering in the back of his mind.’
Mr Justice Haddon-Cave handed Pearce seven and a half years’ custody for the rapes to run concurrently to his life sentence.