Court: Sexual assault accused claims woman left with 45 injuries attacked him

A MAN accused of physically and sexually assaulting a woman and leaving her with 45 injuries told police she had in fact attacked him after he refused her sexual advances.

Terry Larkin (56), of Hardwick Lane, Aston, is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of attacking the woman in Sheffield in November last year.

Prosecutor Mr Ian West said Larkin, who denies two counts of assault by penetration and one assault occasioning actual bodily harm, had slapped and punched the woman and caused “extreme pain” by sexually assaulting her, before threatening to kill her.

But the court heard Larkin had claimed in his statement to police that the complainant, who he said was “blind drunk”, had undressed and invited him to have sex before attacking him, which may have caused some of her injuries.

He said she had injured herself further falling downstairs.

Opening the case on Monday, Mr West said the complainant had gone to a pub on November 11 last year to spend time with her family and friends, having “quite a lot to drink”.

After he was called to take her home, Larkin had initially been “nice” but then verbally abused her and slapped her, said Mr West.

The prosecutor said Larkin burned the woman twice with a cigarette end, before dragging her upstairs to the bathroom, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her - causing “extreme pain” - and threatened to kill her.

Larkin punched and slapped the woman, sat on her stomach and squeezed her breast repeatedly, the court heard, and reportedly told the woman to explain the injuries by saying she had fallen down the stairs.

Larkin made no comment during a police interview but said in a prepared statement that he had picked the woman up and she had been “blind drunk”.

He said that the complainant was naked and wanted to have sex with him.

She had started to attack him and some of her injuries had come from that, said Larkin in his statement, adding that after he had taken her for a cold shower to “sober her up”, she had slipped “once or twice”, then, while she was going downstairs, fallen again and suffered more injuries.

The prosecutor said a forensic pathologist had identified 45 “sites of injury” and found that the complainant’s account was “largely supported” by these injuries.

He said the pathologist believed that Larkin’s account “could not be ruled out” but the alleged victim would have had to have suffered further injuries to those he accounted for - and that Larkin was claiming she must have been in “another fight”.

The trial continues.

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