Trial of man accused of breaking into home and touching sleeping woman

Wednesday 26 January 2022

The jury trial of a 22-year-old man, who denies climbing through a sleeping woman’s kitchen window at night and touching her sexually without consent, has begun.

Opening the case against Raul Freitas in the Royal Court yesterday, Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit told the jury that the alleged offence occurred after Mr Freitas and his alleged victim had attended a party in her apartment block, where they had met and exchanged "polite general conversation."

The woman was said to have left around 03:00. When she reached the front door of her apartment, the prosecution said she saw Mr Freitas.

Advocate Maletroit said he had asked her for a top-up for his drink, and she had gone in to her home to get him one.

Freitas allegedly followed her inside, and was "lingering... as if finding reasons to stay". Having "outstayed his welcome", Advocate Maletroit said the woman asked him to leave.

According to the woman, Mr Freitas had then tried to lean in for a kiss, and that the woman had told him she was not interested and told him to leave once more.

The woman was said to have locked her door after this, before going to bed. Later on that evening, Advocate Maletroit explained that woman claimed she woke up to the feeling of someone touching her.

After turning on the light, she says she saw a naked Mr Freitas, and shouted at him to get out. He was then said to have run out of the apartment through the front door, having "rushed" to put his clothes back on.

The woman later told police the alleged incident had left her "horrified."

Shortly after the time the incident was alleged to have taken place, the woman phoned 999 and spoke to officers, telling them that someone touched her. Officers came to her home, and she was then taken to Dewberry House.

Mr Freitas was also arrested that morning, found by officers in a nearby apartment with his shirt and shorts on backwards, and his boxers in his pocket, which he told officers he had taken off that evening as he found them "uncomfortable."

"All the signs, you might think, of someone who had got dressed in a hurry," Advocate Maletroit suggested.

He added that Mr Freitas' fingerprints found on the window frame and that the orientation of them suggested that "he opened the window from the outside" and that he gripped onto the window frame and tiles below as he pulled himself through.

After his arrest, the Advocate noted how Mr Freitas had told police he was both drunk and stoned at the time, and said that the woman was telling "lies."

Defending Mr Freitas, Advocate Adam Harrison provided an alternative version of events.

He said the woman had invited Mr Freitas into her flat after he had asked for a light for his cannabis joint.

He said he had asked to open the kitchen window for a second joint whilst in flat, and then "opened both the small and large window panes on the left hand side and sat by the window on the window sill to smoke his cannabis joint."

He said that Mr Freitas immediately left after the woman had asked him to, and "simply gave [the woman] a friendly kiss when he left."

He added that Mr Freitas' account of the night is that after this interaction, he did not return to her home.

Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae is presiding over the trial, which continues this morning.