"Petrified" woman claims alleged attacker had knife

Thursday 16 November 2023

A woman has described being "petrified" as she repeated her claim that she was locked in a hotel room, beaten and raped by a chef in the second day of her alleged attacker's Royal Court trial.

The woman also said her the hotel staff member had brought a knife with him to the room, adding: “When I saw it he said: ‘Yes, there’s a knife there,’ and giggled.”

The evidence was heard yesterday on the second day of the trial of 49-year-old Terence Martin Quinn, a former chef at the Oaklands Lodge Hotel.

The woman said he spat in her face repeatedly, locked her in the room, forced her to stand in one corner, smashed her mobile phone, beat her and then had sex with her against her will.

Mr Quinn denies charges of rape, grave and criminal assault and false imprisonment.

The woman was challenged on her evidence by Advocate Chris Baglin, defending.

He said: “You had so much to drink that you just zoned out and you didn’t know where you were.”

She said: “That’s not the truth.”

Advocate Baglin asserted: “Mr Quinn has never spat in your face.”

She replied: “That is a lie.”

The advocate asked the woman why she had had no bruises to her face if Mr Quinn had punched her. She said: “I had my hands up, protecting my face.”

She sobbed as she added: “I have had detached retinas and if I get hit in the face I could go blind.”

He asked: “Did you have any bruises to your back?”

She replied: “I don’t know, I can’t see my back. I had bruising down my arms.”

Advocate Baglin also asked why, if Mr Quinn had forced her into sex, she had not struggled or resisted.

She said: “I was petrified. He had kept me in that corner, he had battered me, the door was locked, and he told me to lie down.

“I don’t think any woman would have actually refused.”

The trial is expected to last two more days.