Police found rape victim found cowering in a corner holding a knife (From This Is Cheshire)

Police found rape victim found cowering in a corner holding a knife

5:04pm Wednesday 21st October 2009

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A RAPE victim was found to be cowering in the corner of the room, shaking and holding a knife when the police arrived.

At Warrington Crown Court DC Pam Hopkins, of Warrington CID, said: “At first we wanted to calm her down, she was hysterical. She was shaking like a leaf. You could see she was already showing signs of bruising and her mouth was bloody.”

DC Hopkins and colleagues arrived at the complainant’s home just before midnight on April 30 after the woman’s friend made a 999 call to report the rape.

She said: “She kept saying how sorry she was, how stupid she felt. She kept saying ‘I’m sorry for opening the door’.

“She was traumatised and wouldn’t go in the bedroom. She kept saying ‘his clothes, his can’ (which he left in her flat) she couldn’t go in there.”

The 23-year-old woman was taken to a police medical suite but her condition worsened and she was moved to hospital by ambulance.

The court heard it was initially thought the victim had a broken jaw.

When she gave evidence last Wednesday, DC Hopkins added: “She found it very difficult to speak because she felt disgusted about what actually happened in the room. ‘All I can smell is cigarettes and he had bitten nails,’ she said.

DS Ian Murray, also of Warrington CID, said he and a colleague knocked on Gavin Broadstock’s flat early on May 1 and found Thompson lying on the sofa with his top off, wearing no shoes or socks.

A matching white trainer to the one found in the victim’s flat was found on the floor.

DS Murray said: “Thompson was very aggressive.

“He was up and down, verbally abusive then the next minute very calm.

“He smelled of intoxicants."

But Alexander Taylor-Camara, defending the 24-year-old, said his client was upset and angry because he was taken down the stairs of the building without being allowed to put shoes on.

DS Murray said: “He was angry in the flat, he was asked numerous times to put shoes on and refused.”

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