A 20-year-old woman who committed suicide a week after she had allegedly been raped also took an overdose after she was subjected to a sexual assault by a stranger in a park in 2009, a jury at Chester Crown Court has heard.
The alleged victim, who was from Colwyn Bay, claimed she had been kidnapped and raped in Chester by 33-year-old Masood Mansouri, whom she assumed was a taxi driver on August 10 last year.
Mansouri, of Shannon Close, Saltney, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, serious sexual assault and rape.
The court was told that the alleged victim had a long history of psychiatric problems, which started to manifest at the age of five when she would pull her hair out and suffer from stress-induced asthma attacks.
Prior to her death, she had been diagnosed with an emotionally unstable personality disorder.
She was referred to psychiatric services when she was 14, after revealing to her GP that she was drinking heavily and self-harming.
In July 2009, when she was 15, she was the victim of a sexual assault by an 18-year-old man, who was subsequently prosecuted.
She had been approached by her attacker and willingly followed him to a park, where he assaulted her.
Three months later, she was admitted to hospital after taking an overdose of tablets.
Multiple overdoses and suicide attempts followed over the years.
Dr Fareed Bashir, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, gave evidence as the defence’s expert witness on Thursday (April 23).
Dr Bashir said it was ‘an unusual case’ because he had not met the alleged victim but had the benefit of looking at her medical notes, her police statement, her video interview with the police and witness statements.
He agreed with her doctors’ assessment that she suffered from a personality disorder.
He said: “She fell into the category of someone suffering from a severe personality disorder because it started very early on and it failed to improve with psychiatric help or presciption medication.
“I believe that she struggled to trust her partners, those that she may have fallen in love with.
“I believe that she would at times have feared that she was going to be hurt or abandoned, or that she may have misconstrued words or behaviour by her partners in a negative way.”
Earlier in the trial, a lawyer representing Masood Mansouri suggested she may have made up the story after regretting having sex.
The prosecution claim the complainant got in Mansouri’s car in a drunken state after flagging down what she assumed was a taxi to take her and two male friends to Chester nightclub Bar 69.
But the defendant is alleged to have driven off with the 20-year-old alone and taken her to his home where he carried out the sex attack before she managed to escape.
One of the friends, alerted by alarming text messages from the victim, had called police and neighbours, unaware of what had taken place, called a taxi which took her into town where she was reunited with her two friends.
Prosecutors say the victim’s initial thoughts were to try and forget about what had happened but she later changed her mind on realising the seriousness of what had taken place.
Andrew Thomas, defending, told the jury about the points he would have put to the complainant if she were in the witness box.
He would have asked her about the fact the genuine taxi driver recalled that she said a man had ‘tried to rape her and she escaped before that happened’.
Mr Thomas said he would have asked her about what she told police on the afternoon of August 10.
He said: “We would have pointed out that the police were telling her they were obliged to investigate even though she made it clear she didn’t want to make a complaint.
“We would have asked what she said to police on that Sunday afternoon because she told police she did not protest when Mr Mansouri kissed her and touched her over her clothing and she said to the police then that she left the house without having sex, sexual intercourse didn’t take place.”
Mr Thomas said the victim had apparently told her mother the next day that she ‘had gone along with what happened in the house’ because of a previous experience with another man on another occasion.
According to notes made by police, Mr Thomas said: “She told her mother it was while having sex, after sex had been initiated, that she came to a point where she wanted him to stop.”
Mr Thomas said the complainant had a history of mental illness and suicide attempts. She had a border-line personality disorder, more commonly referred to as being emotionally unstable. She would sometimes act impulsively and later regret her behaviour.
Referring to an incident in September 2013, he said: “She got drunk and had woken up in bed with a stranger. She felt embarrassed and upset at what she had done and made a serious attempt to take her own life.”
Mr Thomas added: “We suggest the truth of this case is that she had been drinking, decided to have sex and then regretted what she had done.”
The trial continues.
