Chef denies vicious rape in Chester city centre

Jan 21 2010 by Claire Devine, Chester Chronicle

Timeline

Saturday-Sunday, July 25-26, 2009:

6.30pm: Woman dropped off by parents on Foregate Street, Chester, goes to the Forest House pub on Love Street and orders a large glass of white wine. A phone call from her friend makes her realise she is at the wrong bar. She finishes most of her wine and leaves.

7pm: The woman meets her friend outside The Square Bottle Wetherspoons, Foregate Street. They have a cigarette before going in and ordering a glass of wine each. They are joined by three other work colleagues. The alleged victim has another glass of wine before the group leaves.

8.30pm: The group moves on to Revolution bar, Foregate Street. They are joined by a man, a friend of the alleged victim. She is seen having a couple of vodka shots and dancing with her friends.

10.30pm: The group moves on to Cruise nightclub, St John Street. The woman walks there with her work colleague and male friend but does not remember the journey.

10.45pm: The alleged victim arrives at Cruise (right) with her friends. She is seen at the bar buying drinks and also mistakenly consumes drinks belonging to another group on the same table. The woman remembers being on the dance floor and sitting on a sofa in the club but little else. Witnesses in Cruise spoke of her worsening as the night wore on.

Midnight: The woman is advised to move on to soft drinks by friends but has more vodka and wine and starts sliding off the sofa.

1am: The alleged victim’s eyes are closed and her legs flailing. Her friends try to prop her up on a sofa.

1.15am: The woman is asleep on a sofa, having declined the offer of a bed at a friend’s house.

1.30am: The alleged victim has passed out on the sofa. She is roused and helped out by her friend who has to apologise for her as she knocks into people on the way, as well as knocking into the wall.

CCTV shows the woman leaning against a wall outside. She wanders off up St John Street as her colleague goes back inside the club to collect her coat. Her friend guides her back to Cruise, puts her coat around her shoulders and goes to find her male friend.

The woman wanders off again up St John Street and when her colleague returns she can see her and another mutual friend walking about 15-20ft behind her. She assumes the friend will look after the woman and gets in her friend’s car which has been waiting to take her home.

However, the other friend does not catch up with the alleged victim and goes for a drink elsewhere.

The woman is alone and heads for Foregate Street.

1.46am: Mark Caunce leaves the Forest House pub, Love Street, with another man and walks up to and on to Foregate Street.

There is no CCTV of the time Caunce and the woman meet but the next time they are seen they are together.

A friend of the victim’s sees her and Caunce stopped by a wall kissing. She is surprised to see the woman with Caunce, who she does not recognise.

She said the woman seems very drunk but is responding to kissing. The man is putting his hand up the victim’s skirt.

1.55am: CCTV from Abbey Taxis, overlooking Foregate Street and the entrance to Parker’s Buildings (right), shows Caunce and the woman going through the entrance to the flats.

2am: A resident in the flats is woken by shouting and hears an angry male voice.

Between 2 and 3am: Two other residents hear a female scream and a raised male voice near Foregate Street garage.

2.41am: Caunce emerges from the main entrance to the flats where he entered. He walks to Abbey Taxis (right).

The security guard notices he has blood on his right hand and Caunce tells him he has been in a fight.

CCTV shows him quietly queuing for the taxi and getting in.

The taxi driver takes him home to Buckley and notices he has dried blood around the stomach area of his T-shirt and dried blood around the mouth. He said Caunce was slurring his words and looked ‘out of it’.

3.15-3.30am: A resident hears a female scream.

3.18am: The woman emerges from the same main entrance she went in and wanders over to Abbey Taxis.

CCTV shows her badly beaten to the face and she has fresh blood on her legs. Her tights and underwear are down around her right ankle. The security guard at the taxi rank calls an ambulance and the woman is taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Sunday morning: Caunce arrives for work as normal at The Queen Hotel, City Road. He explains his injuries to his boss saying he ‘popped’ a lad’s nose in the taxi rank the night before.

July 29, 8.15am: Caunce is arrested at The Queen Hotel, City Road, Chester, where he works as a trainee chef.