Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘I’m a burglar and thief but I am not violent’
Man denies intending to rape woman and tells court:
An Ashford man claimed he discovered a cousin sexually attacking a woman and ordered him to stop.
Damian Davey said he then chased Sam King, 25, away telling a passer-by: “I am going to kill him.”
But the 32-year-old told a jury at Canterbury Crown Court: “I had no intention to rape or rob the woman.”
Davey, an unemployed potato deliverer who lives in a tent in Ashford, has denied attempted rape, attempted robbery and knife possession charges.
The prosecution has alleged he and his cousin took part in the attack in Canterbury’s Dane John Park in May this year.
But he said: “I am a thief and a burglar but I am not violent.”
Davey said he had been walking with King during a visit to the city and headed to the secluded spot to smoke cannabis when he heard screams.
He said his cousin had been walking ahead of him and he found King pinning the woman to the ground.
He added: “I told him to get off her and then I chased him.”
Davey added he had been smoking cannabis earlier in the evening before the woman had gone to a cashpoint near the Halifax.
King had alleged he was threatened by Davey into robbing the drunken woman.
“I didn’t see her at that time. I did not follow her. I never told my cousin that she was ‘an earner’ and that we were going to rob her.
“I never threatened to hurt him if he didn’t carry out the robbery.”
He also denied stealing a CD mixer, which his cousin claimed had been taken earlier that day from a flat at Kent University.
Davey said he had no money when he got to Canterbury and had planned to start begging the following day.
He said he walked in the same direction as a woman at 2am intending to “roll another joint” near the bandstand in the park and only noticed her as she passed McDonald’s restaurant.
His barrister Dominic Web- ber asked: “Had you said to King you thought she was pretty.”
He replied: “Probably, I said that about a lot of girls that night.”
But he denied being “locked on her” or knowing King was following the woman prior to the attack.
Mr Webber: “Was anything said by you or King about robbing her? Davey: “No.”
He added: “The first thing I heard was screaming as I went into the park.
“I was looking for my lighter and I thought at first someone was just mucking around but the screaming continued.
“I had lost sight of King. I went to see what was happening and that was when I saw him. I saw Mr King on the floor with a girl, holding her down. He had her pinned to the floor and looked as if his hands were down her knickers.
“I said: ‘What are you doing? Get off her. He looked at me and got up and ran and I chased him. I just wanted to get hold of him.”
He said he never spoke with the woman to ask how she was but talked with another man who had come to the woman’s aid.
Davey denied he had a knife and claimed he had a mobile phone but couldn’t call the police because the battery was flat.
“I did say I was going to kill him (King). I then started searching the bushes. I later slept in a cabin.”
Asked why he didn’t report the attack to police and replied: “I know I should have done.”
He said he didn’t talk to officers because he was in breach of his prison licence conditions.
“I didn’t want to go back to prison. I am not a violent person. At the time I was trying to change my life.”
John Fitzgerald, for King asked: “You got your little cousin to do your dirty little work for you that night didn’t you?”
Davey replied: “No. I don’t do street robberies. It was coincidence I was walking in the same direction as the girl.”
King has admitted sex assault and attempted robbery but denies attempting to rape the woman.
The trial continues.