A LITHUANIAN woman was raped at knifepoint, burned and had a gun put to her head after arriving in Northern Ireland, the High Court in Belfast heard yesterday.
A man she met online locked her in a house, threatened to gouge her eyes out, and put on boxing gloves with which to beat her, it was alleged.
Prosecutors claimed the woman was forced to perform sexual acts.
Details emerged as her alleged attacker, migrant worker Audrius Aukstuolis (28), was refused bail. The Lithuanian national, of Lambfield Meadows, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, denies charges of rape, grievous bodily harm and making threats to kill. He claims to have been set up in an extortion plot.
The court heard the accused and alleged victim met though a website and communicated for months before she flew to Ireland last month.
Crown counsel Christine Smith said Mr Aukstuolis took the woman to his home and showed her a bedroom where she would be staying.
It was claimed he laid roses out in the shape of a heart on the bed.
According to the prosecution he later began accusing her of texting other men, followed her everywhere when they went out, and demanded her mobile phone if she went to the bathroom.
Ms Smith said the pair had consensual sex, but on July 25th, the woman claimed Mr Aukstuolis asked her to delete an online account she had.
Mr Aukstuolis was also alleged to have read her online history and threatened to “cut off her fingers, arms and take her eyes out if she stood close to him while he was at the computer”.
It was claimed he locked the woman in a room before putting a knife to her throat and telling her to say she would stay with him. The woman claimed she was raped and then, a day later, burned on the toe with a heated knife.
She claimed to have had a gun put against her head while she was on her knees pleading with him after an attempt to run from the house, the court heard.
Following Mr Aukstuolis’s arrest on July 28th, police searched his home and seized boxing gloves, a baseball bat, a black strap and knives. He denied all allegations against him.
Ms Smith said: “He referred to her on several occasions as his internet love and the love of his life. He denied ever raping her and stated he could never hurt her.” Mr Aukstuolis also insisted the woman could have left the house at any point.
Ian Turkington, defending, said his client, a labourer, had nothing to hide. “The defendant makes the case at interview he is the victim of an extortion of blackmail attempt by the alleged injured party along with other cohorts of hers,” Mr Turkington argued.
The barrister claimed medical reports on the alleged victim were not consistent with the assaults she said she was subjected to.
Refusing bail, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan ruled there was a risk to the public on the basis of allegations which he stressed had not yet been proven.