Rowton hairdresser and his client on trial for rape

A HAIRDRESSER allegedly raped a woman while a former customer of his salon held her down.

Paul Kershaw, 34, of Claypit Lane in Rowton, Chester, denies the alleged attack on the woman, who is in her 40s but cannot be identified.

Kershaw and Lisa Marie Rodda, 40, whose hair he used to cut when he owned a salon in Tarporley, are on trial at Mold Crown Court accused of raping the woman at a house in Hawarden, Flintshire.

The alleged victim said her life had been ‘absolutely devastated’ following the attack.

"I never expected to feel this way about what happened," she told the court yesterday (Wednesday) over a live television link.

"I thought I would be able to handle it. I thought I would be able to push it to one side.

"I really want to be able to do that. But I just cannot."

She added: "It has destroyed my self-confidence, my self-esteem.

"My life has been absolutely devastated."

In evidence the complainant said she had been sexually assaulted and later raped by the defendants after a night out in Chester in June last year – while her boyfriend and a child were in the house.

She told the jury of eight women and four men that the pair had entered her bedroom and Rodda had pulled her bedclothes back when she was naked, held her arms and told hairdresser Kershaw to indecently assault her, which he allegedly did.

Later Rodda put her hand over the complainant’s mouth, pushed her head into a pillow and held her while Kershaw raped her, the court heard.

The woman denied suggestions by Alastair Edie, defending Rodda, of Sidmouth Road, Ashton upon Mersey, near Sale, that she wanted to have sex with Kershaw and that Rodda left the room before she did so.

Cross-examined by Jonathan Duffy, defending Kershaw, the alleged victim denied that she had consensual sex with him.

But she agreed that she had gone outside and had a cigarette with both of them after the incident.

She told Mr Duffy: "I just shut down, my whole mind shut down. I just did as she told me.

"I was so shocked. I could not believe what had happened. I was absolutely stunned."

The complainant said she was sober and did not drink alcohol.

But she said the defendants were ‘absolutely off their faces’ and ‘completely out of control’.

Prosecutor Simon Mills previously told the jury that the defendants treated the complainant as ‘a sexual play-thing’.

Kershaw and Rodda both deny rape and sexual assault.

The trial continues.