Accused serial rapist Nicholas Edwards followed a
Accused serial rapist Nicholas Edwards followed a ‘system’ when he carried out as many as seven sex attacks in almost identical circumstances, the Old Bailey heard today.
Accounts given by each of the complainants against Edwards, 39, at his latest rape trial bear ‘such a hallmark of similarity that they are bound to be true,’ David Perry argued in his closing speech for the prosecution.
Mr Perry said ‘similar fact evidence’ had been ruled admissible in the case because it was relevant in proving Edwards guilt in relation to the rape of Miss D, 23, in August 1998.
‘The law says the time has come when the jury has to be told about the fact that a number of witnesses have come forward, and without collusion, given a similar account of the defendant’s behaviour towards them.
‘It is evidence of a system, is it not?’ the prosecutor asked rhetorically.
‘Blank out the dates and the names and you get a similar description of when the defendant changes his mood, demands sexual intercourse under threat of violence and gets sexual intercourse under threat of violence.
‘So the law says in exceptional circumstances similar fact evidence is admissible.
‘
During the Crown’s case Miss D, now living in Birmingham, claimed Edwards raped her at his flat in Sydenham over the bank holiday weekend in August 1998.
She said after playing the charming gentleman he put her through a terrifying sex ordeal which left her staring at the stars through an open window and wondering whether she would survive.
Unusually the Crown was then allowed to call five other complainants who claim Edwards raped each of them in ‘strikingly similar’ circumstances over the last 16 years.
Two of the women claimed he attacked them when he lived in High Wycombe, Bucks in the 1980s.
Following previous trials Edwards was acquitted by different juries of rape in respect of five of the complainants.
But he was convicted of raping one of the women, Miss S, 33, at his address in High Wycombe after a trial at Reading Crown Court in 1986.
The same jury then had acquitted him of the rape of a seventh woman, Miss F, who was not called to testify at the latest trial.
Mr Perry said Edwards accepts that each of the allegations – whether at his home or in his car – arise from ‘pretty much the same kind of incident.
‘
He then likened the case to the so-called ‘Brides in the bath’ trial – in which the three wives of George Frederick Smith all died while bathing.
‘It so happened he took out insurance policies on their lives.
‘
After the first death it was viewed as an accident, following the second it was unfortunate, but after the third death it was viewed as ‘criminal and he was convicted (of the killings).
Mr Perry continued: ‘Does lightening strike six times? Does it strike seven times if you include Miss F?
‘In the Guinness Book of Records the record for lightening striking is nine times and that maybe so.
‘But we are not talking about natural phenomena, we are talking about human behaviour.
‘The statistical probability is that each of these women are not going to each make identical allegations against this defendant.
‘Of course it may be said that if you have 2,000 sexual encounters perhaps the statistical probability of women making allegations against you increases.
‘
But Mr Perry said that particular number may have been thrown in to ‘bamboozle’ the jury.
‘You have to assess whether they are liars and whether they have lied so blatantly and wickedly for one reason and for one reason only – to convict an innocent man.
‘
Edwards, of Wirrall House, Sydenham Estate, Wells Park Road, Sydenham, denies one charge of rape on August 31, 1998.
The trial continues tomorrow (wed) with a defence closing speech followed by the judge’s summing up to the jury.
The panel is unlikely to retire to consider its verdict on Thursday.
ends
mmmm
