Widow, 79, tells of rape ordeal
4:51pm Wednesday 2nd August 2006 in Your Town By Anna Youssef
A 79-YEAR-OLD woman told a court how she was raped in her home by a man she considered to be her friend.
The widow, giving her evidence to the court by video link, told how Thomas Rostron, aged 62, who was known to her as Tom, forced himself upon her as they sat talking.
The attack happened at around lunchtime on August 15, last year, Bolton Crown Court heard yesterday.
Rostron, a caretaker, also faces a charge of raping another woman in an empty classroom in the school where he worked.
Rostron, of Meadowside Avenue, Tonge Fold, pleads not guilty to both charges.
The jury watched a video interview with the elderly widow, an Alzheimer's sufferer, which was conducted within 24 hours of the attack to avoid the possible long-term effects on her memory caused by the disease.
They heard that Rostron had befriended her in the weeks after her husband died and had been given a key to her home.
He was said to have knocked on the front door of her one bedroom flat, entered her home and sat next to her on a couch in her living room.
The widow said he made unwanted advances, touching her and pulling her to the edge of the couch as he knelt on the floor and forced himself upon her.
She said: "I told him stop it, stop it, get off. I don't want you doing that'."
"I just kept saying stop it'. I pushed him away.
"I said get out right now, I'm going to call the police', and with that he went.
"When he'd gone I couldn't stop crying. I was really upset."
The woman told how she washed herself and the clothing she had been wearing straight away. She said: "I felt dirty. I couldn't stand them"
Following his arrest on August 16, 2005, Rostron told police that he had had sex with the woman, but it was she who had instigated it.
Defending, Michael Blakey, told the court that the woman had asked for a cuddle and put her hand on Rostron's thigh, saying she felt "down and depressed" following the death of her husband.
Mr Blakey asked the woman why she had not pulled a safety cord which was hanging in the room that would have alerted a care worker. The pensioner said she was unable to remember whether she had reached for the cord.
A community worker who visited her shortly afterwards, told how the woman was "bewildered and shocked."
The witness, who is a regular visitor to the woman's home and dialled 999 after seeing her that day, said: "I've never seen her in that state before.
"She was obviously upset, I could see that she was close to tears."
Proceeding
