A ‘Good Samaritan’ allegedly turned sex attacker after helping a paranoid schizophrenic who had become lost in Chester city centre, a court heard today (Monday, April 11).

Nick Chambers, from the Chapeltown area of Leeds, is standing trial at Chester Crown Court accused of raping the vulnerable woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – in a public toilet at the Kaleyards on May 29 last year.

The jury was told by prosecutor Simon Parry that the complainant was ‘particularly poorly’ at that time and had travelled to Chester from her home in Flintshire to buy some clothes.

But the shops were closed by the time she arrived and she became lost.

Mr Parry said 39-year-old Chambers – who denies the rape – ‘befriended the obviously vulnerable woman’ and it initially appeared he tried to help her by taking her to Chester Town Hall Police Station, but ‘for whatever reason’ staff there did not realise how ill she was and advised him to take her to a homeless hostel in Boughton.

'Good intentions gave way'

But the alleged victim claims he pulled her into a 24-hour public toilet at the Kaleyards near Chester Cathedral and raped her, in spite of her saying no.

Mr Parry said: “En route the defendant’s early good intentions gave way.

“The Good Samaritan became a sexual predator.”

The complainant says her journey to get away from her alleged attacker took her to The Old Harkers pub, where a doorman told Chambers to leave the woman alone.

She was eventually picked up by police at The Mill Hotel after staff realised a radio message put out about a missing vulnerable woman referred to her.

Her father took her to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, where she told staff she had been raped by a tramp that evening.

Mr Parry said that ‘sadly, for whatever reason’ no action was taken and the complainant was admitted to the hospital.

She was released more than two weeks later and, once home, repeated her claim that she had been raped to her mother.

The matter was then reported to police.

Chambers was arrested in Rotherham on September 11 and accepted he had taken her to the police station, then on towards the homeless shelter.

But he said neither of them went inside a toilet at the Kaleyards and no sexual contact took place.

Mr Parry urged members of the jury to put any pre-conceived ideas they may have about the victim’s illness to one side.

“There is no issue about consent in this case.

"If it happened as the complainant described, she was not consenting and by telling the defendant ‘no’ he would have known that she was not consenting.

“You have to decide whether he took her into those toilets and raped her.”

The trial continues.