A young Russian woman who went to a house hoping f
A young Russian woman who went to a house hoping for a pleasant poetry reading evening ended up the victim of a nightmare gang rape attack, a court heard.
The pretty 25-year-old was lured to the sex den in West London after Michael Roslan got her drunk on cocktails.
The brunette put up a desperate struggle but she was stripped and abused in turn at knifepoint by three of her compatriots.
Sarah Whitehouse, prosecuting, said a fourth man was invited to rape the gang’s helpless victim but he declined, saying: ‘To hell with her.
She’s just a dead body now.
‘
Only Roslan, 25 and Igor Grygorenko, 29, are in the dock at Blackfriars Crown Court in south London denying rape.
A third man, referred to as ‘Ernst’ and a fourth called only ‘Pasha’ were also present during the attack.
The court heard the woman had met Roslan once prior to the poetry reading invitation on July 12, 2000.
He told her a friend called Ernst was a poet who had just arrived from New York.
After meeting her at Queensway tube station, west London, Roslan took her to TGI Fridays restaurant where he plied her with cocktails, it was claimed.
They then went to a small flat in Linden Gardens in Notting Hill where there was no sign of the promised poetry recital, Miss Whitehouse said.
‘She met Ernst and felt a little let down when she quickly realised he wasn’t a poet or an artist.
‘
When she refused to drink vodka with her compatriots, Roslan made a trip to an off licence to buy wine and the energy drink Red Bull.
‘You may wonder why it was he wanted to get some wine,’ continued Miss Whitehouse.
‘Was he being hospitable or were the young men trying to get her drunk.
‘
The woman relaxed after sipping some wine ‘but everything then began to go very badly wrong,’ the prosecutor continued.
Roslan began to claim he had slept with her, Miss Whitehouse said.
‘Pasha then sidled up to the 25-year-old and put his arm round her waist.
‘By this stage, she wanted to go home.
She sat down next to Roslan, feeling that he would be her protector.
‘But that was not to be because Grygorenko put his arm round her waist and put his hand under her top.
‘She refused his advances, but he kept on, and tried to undo her bra, telling her to relax and take it easy,’ Miss Whitehouse said.
The woman tried to get up when she noticed Ernst and Pasha blocking the door.
‘Suddenly Igor grabbed her by the arm and threatened her and said: “You know perfectly well why you are here,”‘ Miss Whitehouse said.
‘She was pushed on to the bed and found herself struggling as various people tried to pin her down.
‘Ernst, Pasha, and Grygorenko were all involved in this,’ Miss Whitehouse said.
‘Various suggestions were made to her.
She resisted as much as she could until a blade was produced, a long knife with a serrated edge, and Igor threatened to cut her,’ Miss Whitehouse said.
‘At that point she was raped for the first time by Roslan.
The other two helped.
Grygorenko stripped her of her underwear and Pasha forced her legs open by pushing down on her abdomen,’ the court heard.
‘Igor raped her, then Ernst, one after the other,’ Miss Whitehouse said.
‘She remembers parts of what was happening.
Pasha was joking while Igor was raping her and Ernst was sweating during the act.
‘She was not subject to rape by Pasha.
‘He said: ‘To hell with her.
She’s just a dead body,’ Miss Whitehouse added.
The distraught victim stayed at the flat for around half an hour, with Roslan trying to comfort her, the jury heard.
‘It’s a matter for you, whether she stayed there because she was exhausted and couldn’t move,’ Miss Whitehouse told the jury.
The woman then made her way home.
Roslan phoned the day after the rape and ‘begged her forgiveness,’ Miss Whitehouse said.
A police surgeon found the woman covered in bruises consistent with being held down during the rape.
After his arrest in September Roslan claimed the woman, an asylum seeker, had asked him ‘to arrange a fictitious marriage for her,’ said counsel.
‘He said that may have been part of her motive for the allegations, that she wanted to stay in the country.
‘
When Grygorenko was arrested, in November, he admitted being present at Ernst’s bedsit, but he maintained nothing untoward happened.
‘It’s a matter for you whether or not the rape happened at all, whether the complainant has made it all up on her own, or whether she was raped by these
three men, two of whom are in the dock today,’ Miss Whitehouse added.
Roslan, of (77) Stopford Road, East Ham, and Grygorenko, (86) Shirland Road, Maida Vale, both deny rape on 13 July 2000.
The trial continues.
ends
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