Chef denies vicious rape in Chester city centre

Jan 21 2010 by Claire Devine, Chester Chronicle

THE jury in the case of a trainee chef accused of a city centre rape returns today.

Jurors attended court yesterday but were not called on to sit due to lengthy legal discussion between the prosecution and defence.

Mark Caunce, 21, of Victoria Road, Buckley, is on trial at Chester Crown Court in relation to an alleged attack in the Foregate Street area of Chester in the early hours of Sunday, July 26, 2009.

Caunce denies raping, sexually assaulting and causing grievous bodily harm to a woman after a night out.

Chester Crown Court heard the 30-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a three-inch internal tear, a broken nose, a fracture to the eye socket and the cheek bone, multiple bruises to the head and face, bruising around the neck, a blow to the head and cuts inside her mouth.

Prosecuting, David Potter said the woman had been drinking heavily. She left Cruise nightclub at about 1.30am and headed to a taxi rank on Foregate Street.

It is believed she first encountered Caunce on Foregate Street and the pair were witnessed kissing in the street.

CCTV footage showed them going into the entrance to flats.

Caunce admitted entering the car park of Parker’s Buildings, off Foregate Street, with the victim.

He admitted sexual intercourse and sexual intimacy with her, but said all activity was consensual.

He said at the end he had a fit of conscience about having intercourse with a stranger when he had a girlfriend at home.

He struck out in temper at the floor and may have caught the victim’s head once in the process but denied causing the other injuries.

Mr Potter said by the time the victim saw Caunce she was incapable of forming reasonable consent to sex.

He said: “The level of extreme violence demonstrates the level of force Mark Caunce needed to use to rape her.”

The victim said: “I don’t remember leaving Cruise or anything outside. The next thing I remember is waking up in hospital.”

In cross-examination on Friday, January 15, Deborah Gould, defending, said there were several statements saying the woman had said from the outset she had not been raped.

The victim said if she did it was probably because she was ashamed or embarrassed.

Miss Gould suggested the woman came up with a different account of rape because she did not want to accept her behaviour was out of character.

The victim said: “If I thought he hadn’t raped me I wouldn’t be here.”

On Monday, January 18, the court heard from the woman’s colleague who was on the night out with her.

The witness said the woman became quite drunk in a short space of time in Cruise.

The witness helped the woman out of Cruise.

She said: “She was knocking into people. She was extremely drunk, I had to apologise to people for her.”

The trial continues.