A MASKED man dragged a woman into a clearing off a quiet footpath and raped her, a court heard.
Karl Billington was caught after his victim ran to a nearby school to report the attack and scientists found his DNA on her hands, Bolton Crown Court was told yesterday.
Billington, aged 34, of St Peter's Terrace, Farnworth, denied raping the woman in Kearsley on September 13 last year and the sexual assault of another woman a month earlier.
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Iain Simkin, prosecuting, told the jury that Billington targeted his first victim, whom he sexually assaulted, as she walked home from a friend's house in the early hours of August 12.
The woman, aged 34, was alone in High Stile Lane when he approached her and asked for a cigarette. She told him she did not have any and phoned a friend to say she had been approached by a "weirdo".
As the woman crossed the footbridge over the M61, she was grabbed around the neck by a man holding a knife and wearing a stocking mask. She recognised him as the man who had approached her earlier, said Mr Simkin.
He sexually assaulted her and knocked her over.
Billington picked up her phone and allegedly told her: "I could have robbed you but all I want to do is touch you."
A passing car disturbed him and he ran off. A woman who lived nearby saw part of the incident and took the victim into her home.
A month later, a 45-year-old woman became Billington's rape victim as she returned to her Kearsley home after shopping in Farnworth, it was alleged. "He grew in confidence. He'd become more brazen and ready to take risks," said Mr Simkin.
The woman was pulling her shopping trolley along a footpath running alongside the M61 when the attacker, again wearing a stocking mask, approached her and demanded she remove some clothing.
She tried to kick him and swung her shopping at him in a bid to escape, but he grabbed her from behind and forced her to pull her underwear down. When she tried to escape again, he forced her behind some bushes and ordered her to perform oral sex on him.
Afterwards, he let her go and she ran to George Tomlinson School, where staff reported the attack to police and Billington's DNA was recovered from her hands.
When questioned by police, Billington admitted having oral sex with the woman by the footpath but claimed she had instigated it.
Police searching his home later found a stocking mask.
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