Security guard ‘rescued drunken rape victim’
9:14am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in Your Town
A SECURITY guard had to rescue a teenage girl as she was being raped, a court was told.
The alleged attacker was Michael Aspinall, of Dixon Street, Westhoughton, who is on trial at Truro Crown Court, accused of raping the drunken 18-year-old in a tent at a Cornish campsite.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she had drunk seven or eight small bottles of lager before going on a night out in Newquay.
She said: “I returned to the campsite in a taxi with a man I had met and went into the toilets until he left.
“I then went to my friends, one of whom had a two-litre cider bottle of a white liquid — it was possibly vodka—and had several ‘glugs’ from it.
“Everything started to go hazy again and the next thing I remember I was in hospital.”
Security guard Michael Ball told the court that when the girl was carried into Aspinall’s tent “she was like a limp doll”.
He and his colleague were concerned and went to the tent to check on her.
Mr Ball told the court: “Aspinall was on top of her having sex. The girl was still unconscious. I told him to get dressed. I went outside, then looked into the tent and he was having sex with her again. She was still unconscious.
“I threw his trousers at him and he went outside, saying: ‘She gave me consent’.
The court heard that Aspinall seemed “quite sober” following the alleged incident.
Mr Ball’s colleague, Ronald Blight, told the court he girl was “absolutely out of it”.
He added: “It was cold outside and she was shivering and Aspinall said he would put her in his tent to keep her warm.”
Sgt Martin Roberts, of Devon and Cornwall police, said the girl was unconscious when he arrived.
Paramedic Michael Gough said he and his colleague held the girl as they walked her to the ambulance.
It took about 10 minutes to get her to reveal her name and age.
The teenager said she had no recollection of what had happened.
The trial continues.
