Rape victim tells of child sex abuse

By JANE HUNT

A MOTHER-OF-TWO who claimed she was raped on a train travelling between Ipswich and Colchester told a court today that she had been the victim of sexual abuse when she was a child.

The 22-year-old woman, who has two young children, said she had been indecently assaulted by her grandfather and he had been jailed for six months after she told her mother what had been going on.

She said that after she was allegedly raped in March last year by 23-year-old Abdul Hassan she had been reluctant to report it to the police because of her experiences when she was a child.

"I didn't want to have to deal with the same situation as when I was a child."

"I didn't feel there had been justice then and I didn't want to go through it again," she said.

The woman was giving evidence on the second day of Hassan's trial at Ipswich Crown Court. Hassan, of Manor Park, London has denied raping the woman.

She has claimed that she was travelling from Ipswich to Chelmsford shortly before 10pm when Hassan and two of his friends had sat down near her.

She had felt uncomfortable as she was alone in the carriage with the men and had got up to move.

As she did so she claimed she was surrounded by the men and "shoved" into a toilet where she was allegedly raped by Hassan while his two friends hammered on the door telling him to hurry up.

She also claimed that after Hassan had raped her she saw one of his friends standing in the doorway undoing the belt of his trousers.

However the train had started to slow down as it arrived at Colchester and the men had disappeared.

The woman who was living in Ipswich had got off the train at Colchester and had told a relative what had happened to her the following day.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Patricia Lynch QC the woman accepted that she hadn't made a complaint to the police about the alleged rape until three days later.

The trial continues.