A woman who claimed she was raped 30 years ago denied yesterday ever having “consensual” sex with her alleged attacker.

Kamal Worrell, for the defence, suggested that she had sex with his client on at least three occasions, twice in her family home and once on a beach during a camping trip in St George’s.

The 45-year-old said that the only time she had sex with the defendant was when he raped her when she was aged 15 and that the only time she had camped in the St George’s area named was when she was “4 or 5 years old”.

She added: “He was not around at that point.”

Neither the alleged victim or the defendant, a 53-year-old Pembroke man, can be identified for legal reasons.

The woman told the Supreme Court on Monday that the defendant forced his way into her family home and raped her on the floor of the living room in September 1988.

At the time the defendant, who denies a charge of rape, was 23.

She added the defendant had later “stalked” her and gave her a “love letter”, but she kept the incident a secret for almost a year before she told her mother.

The witness said yesterday she had known the defendant since she was about 6 or 7 years old and regarded him as a family friend.

She said his family had lived near her own and that before the incident she thought he was a kind person. The woman denied having any sexual relations with the defendant before or after the incident and that she tried to avoid him after the attack.

The woman was questioned by Mr Worrell about why she had waited until last year to report the alleged attack.

She told the court: “I just want justice and relief. Do you know how hard it is to have something over your head for so many years?

“Sometimes to get rid of the pain when I was younger I went out drinking. Smoking weed. I did other drugs just to cope.”

She added: “I don’t sleep. I never could sleep. It plays on my mind sometimes. It’s like you are playing a record and the record just goes over and over and over.”

The witness said she only gave a statement to police about the incident on April 3 last year.

She explained that after she told her mother about the attack, her mother approached a family friend who was a police officer.

The family later went to a lawyer to get a restraining order against the defendant.

The witness said during the meeting she heard the term “statutory rape” being used instead of “rape”.

She said: “I remember the officer saying it was something we had to go to a lawyer with because it was very serious.”

The woman told the court she was not aware at the time what “statutory rape” meant.

She said: “Back then, no. Now, yes. Statutory rape is sex with a minor.”

She told the court that she did not pursue a case at that time, but a restraining order against the defendant was filed.

The woman added that she did not remember if the restraining order was ever lifted.

She offered to re-enact the alleged attack with Mr Worrell in the court.

The woman grabbed him by the arms, pushed him to the floor and forced his legs apart with her knee.

Mr Worrell afterwards questioned her on her statement to the police, where she said she could not remember how the defendant had pushed her legs apart.

However, she insisted after the re-enactment that he had used his knee.

The woman said: “It’s like when you are in an accident. When you go to the scene, things click in your head.”

The trial continues.

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