Terrified woman was ‘raped at knifepoint’

Court hears of teenager’s ordeal before she managed to escape

A YOUNG Newbury woman sobbed as she told a jury how she begged a knife-wielding rapist not to kill her.

Her 32-year-old attacker brutalised her at knifepoint when she was still a teenager, keeping her prisoner and repeatedly stabbing her, Reading Crown Court heard.

After subjecting the victim to degrading sexual torture, the defendant bundled her into a car and careered through backstreets at 100mph, saying they would die together, jurors were told.

She allegedly escaped by leaping from his car at Chieveley Services.

In the dock was Paul Tidbury, who has lived at various addresses in Newbury.

He admits beating the woman, but denies raping her, insisting the sex was consensual.

Opening the prosecution case on Monday, prosecutor Rob Welling said the pair had gone out for a drink, but added that as the evening progressed, Mr Tidbury turned violent, held her prisoner and raped her, threatening to kill her and her family.

The attack was said to have happened in room in a Travelodge in Basingstoke, where he allegedly pulled out a knife and forced her to perform sex acts while repeatedly punching and slapping her.

He then shoved her on to her front and painfully raped her without a condom before forcing her into more degrading behaviour while continuing to punch her, said Mr Welling.

The court was told Mr Tidbury then began to puncture her skin with the knife, threatening to rape and kill her family members, before saying he was going to drive her to woodland where she would be forced to hang herself.

Bloodied and battered, the woman was bundled into his car and had a knife held to her throat as he drove to Newbury past St Gabriel’s School and a McDonald’s restaurant, the jury heard.

On the way, he suggested he should kill them both by crashing the car and veered across the lanes at speed, the court heard.

She seized her chance while Mr Tidbury stopped at Chieveley Services and leaped from the car as he tried to grab her hair, but ended up crashing into a petrol pump, jurors were told.

Mr Tidbury’s car was later found abandoned at a Donnington golf club, said Mr Welling.

The alleged victim, who can not be identified, sobbed as she told the jury that Mr Tidbury told her: “If you f ****** scream just watch what happens.”

On the way back to Newbury, she said, Mr Tidbury pulled over in a secluded spot and again produced the knife.

She said she pleaded for her life and offered him £10,000 to spare her, even as he put his hands round her neck.

The woman wept as she added: “He put the knife at my throat and I said ‘please don’t kill me... please don’t kill me’.”

She said she eventually escaped by leaping from the car and evading Mr Tidbury’s clutches before dialling 999 and seeking medical attention for knife wounds to her hand and head, plus severe bruising about her body.

Steve Molloy, defending, suggested that the sex had been consensual and she had invented the rape allegation.

The trial continues.