A former social worker today (THURS) told how vici

A former social worker today (THURS) told how vicious rapists David Mulcahy and John Duffy threatened to butcher her body during a sickening sex attack.

The woman, who was 32 at the time, was dragged onto a common in south-west London, blindfolded, and raped by the pair, the Old Bailey heard.

She said they threatened to gouge her eyes out, slice off her ears, and cut her breasts.

And she told the jury she feared she was going to be tortured and killed by the two men.

The woman, an American now aged 48, was allegedly grabbed by Mulcahy and Duffy, both 41, as she walked towards Barnes railway station in January 1984.

She was dragged to the nearby common and blindfolded before the pair tore off her clothes and mauled her.

During the attack, she said she could only tell who was abusing her because one man – Mulcahy – was considerably taller than the other.

Dabbing her eyes with a tissue, the woman told the court: ‘The taller of the two men ripped my clothes off.

‘I was stripped of everything except my socks and ankle-warmers.

I was pushed back onto the ground.

‘I wasn’t seeing anything, I was relying on what I heard and felt.

He bruised my breast with his mouth.

He was getting angry.

‘I couldn’t tell you how long this lasted.

The shorter man was holding a knife to my throat during this.

‘He asked me several times what my name was, and for reasons I don’t understand I gave him a fictitious name.

‘

The woman said Duffy then raped her as Mulcahy molested her and urged his pal to cut her up.

She went on: ‘He was very angry.

At some point he instructed the shorter man to gouge out my eyes, slice off my ears and slice off my nipples.

‘In all honesty, I psychologically removed myself from my body.

I wasn’t feeling anything.

He repeated the threats.

‘I don’t know his exact words, but I believed I was about to be murdered, disembowelled, tortured.

His words were to the effect that I was going to be cut up before I was left alone.

‘

The woman said that after the rape, Duffy yanked off her blindfold and told her to wait for five minutes.

She said she was terrified they were still watching her, and when she eventually fled the common she was in an hysterical state.

She added: ‘I was afraid that they were still there standing, and I remember not opening my eyes for a fear that I was being stood over.

‘Because I didn’t hear any noises I did open my eyes.

I stood up and grabbed my clothes, put my winter coat on, and began running to the train station.

‘As I was running I heard myself scream something that didn’t sound like a scream.

It sounded more like an animal bellow.

‘I saw a man at the steps to the track, and I ran up to him crying.

I was babbling, possibly incoherently.

‘

The jury has heard how the woman was the third victim in a series of brutal sex attacks carried out by Mulcahy and Duffy near railway lines in the 1980s.

It ended with the murders of 19-year-old Alison Day, Dutch schoolgirl Maartje Tamboezer, 15, and newly-wed LWT secretary Anne Lock, 29.

Former carpenter Duffy is serving seven life sentences for murdering Miss Day and Miss Tamboezer, and raping five other women.

Last year he pleaded guilty to another 17 sex attacks – including the rape of Miss Lock – and shopped ex-plasterer and taxi driver Mulcahy as his partner in crime.

Pint-sized Duffy – dubbed the ‘Railway Rapist’ for the attacks – claimed he wanted to ‘clear his conscience’, and alleges that Mulcahy was the prime mover during their reign of terror.

Mulcahy, of Beaumont Walk, Hampstead, denies the three murders, rapes in West Hampstead in October 1982, Barnes, south-west London, in January 1984, Highgate in June 1984; two rapes on Hampstead Heath in July 1984; and rapes at Brent Cross in January 1985 and Hampstead Heath in March 1985.

He also denies conspiring with Duffy to rape women in Hampstead in March 1983, Highgate in July 1984, and Hampstead in January, February, and March 1985.

The trial continues.

ends

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