A malnourished English woman with severe learning disabilities was allegedly raped repeatedly and imprisoned for nearly a decade at a specially adapted house in Northern Ireland, the High Court in Belfast heard yesterday.
The details emerged when a man accused of controlling and running the lives of two vulnerable adults at an address in Co Armagh applied for bail.
The 57-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, faces charges of rape, false imprisonment and sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder.
He is further charged with indecent assault, trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation, voyeurism, aiding and abetting rape and causing or inciting a person with a mental disorder to engage in sexual activity.
The alleged offences, committed between 2004 and January this year, are all denied.
The accused told police that both women fully consented, the court heard. His barrister also disputed any prosecution portrayal of his client as “a monster” overseeing a “house of horrors”.
Police were called in last December after one of the alleged victims, identified only as M, informed a social services learning disability team that another woman in her 40s from England – referred to as C – had been living in an upstairs room at her home for the past six years. The property consisted of two houses knocked into one, the court heard.
Officers called
Prosecution counsel Conor Maguire said officers called at the address and discovered C. She showed police a bedroom and claimed she had been kept there against her will for the past two years. It had no carpet,wallpaper or lightbulb, according to Mr Maguire.
Social services
The inside door handle was missing, rendering it effectively impossible for anyone inside to get out once it was closed, he said. At that stage C left with social services and has not returned.
Mr Maguire said documentation found in the house showed C had been living there since March 2004 in a dirtier and messier half of the property. “Police believe that it was in England that she was groomed before being taken to Northern Ireland,” Mr Maguire said.
Psychiatric assessments found C had a severe learning disability and would be unable to consent to sex, the court heard.
Medical checks carried out in January found her to be in poor health, showing signs of dehydration and malnourishment, it was stated. An examination revealed her dental health to have been neglected over years. Mr Maguire said: “She weighed six stone when social services intervened. Her physical health has improved considerably since being removed from the property.”
In relation to M, it was claimed that she and the accused became a couple after they met outside Northern Ireland when she was aged 21. At that stage he was already married and he introduced his wife to her as the children’s nanny, it was alleged. M, who has a family with the accused, told police they are no longer in a relationship. She claimed he forced her to have sex with other men, the court heard.
Defence counsel Andrew Moriarty argued that it would be wrong for a bail court to be swept away in a “wave of allegations that are certainly salacious”.
The accused will remain in custody until his case returns to court at a later stage.