Suffolk: alleged rape victim denies making up claims

[ad_1]

A woman who claims she was raped and sexually assaulted by a Suffolk taxi driver more than a decade ago, while still in school, has denied making up the allegations.

Testifying on the second day of Mark Ryan’s trial at Ipswich Crown Court, the woman denied lying about what happened and said: It’s 100% true.

She told the court that she ended up with memory problems after suffering a head injury as a child and accepted that her memory was not the best.

She admitted that she had been involved in fights while in school and that on one occasion she had been kicked out.

The alleged victim said she told friends while still in school that she was raped and agreed to go to where Ryan lived in Feltwell Place, Haverhill, and stand near a fence while a boy threw something out of his window.

The witness claimed Ryan told her that they would both be hurt if she told anyone what he had done to her, but she denied telling a friend that Ryan threatened to kill her.

Asked by defense attorney Richard Kelly why she returned to Ryan’s house after the first alleged assault, she replied that it was because it hadn’t all been sexual.

Ryan, 50, of St James Court, Haverhill, has denied the rape, two offenses of penetration assault and sexual assault.

The offenses were said to have been committed in early 2009, when Ryan was 39 years old.

It is alleged that Ryan contacted the teenager on Facebook after meeting her at the taxi rank and arranging for her to come to his house.

He allegedly sexually assaulted her in his kitchen before forcing her to have sex with him in the living room.

The girl had continued to visit Ryan’s home and he allegedly raped her orally on four other occasions.

She did not report Ryan to the police until 2019 and during interviews with the police he admitted to communicating with her on Facebook, but denied that anything of a sexual nature had taken place.

The court heard that Ryan, who was working as a taxi driver at the time of the alleged offenses, had no previous convictions.

The trial continues.

[ad_2]