Rape ordeal of mother and daughter

The court heard the 74-year-old was repeatedly raped

A pensioner was repeatedly raped in a brutal attack at her home as her elderly mother sat bound and blindfolded upstairs, a court was told.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court heard the 74-year-old was raped in the hour-long ordeal after a man posing as a telephone engineer conned his way into the house she shared with her 93-year-old mother.

Anthony Joyce, 49, of Neville Close, Salisbury, denies two counts of rape, two of false imprisonment and one of burglary relating to the attack at a house in the Westbury area in June 1999.

Derwyn Hope, prosecuting, said the woman and her mother had been devastated by the incident.

She was then raped repeatedly after being tied to the chair

Derwyn Hope

Mr Hope told the jury the daughter had received a phone call the day before the attack from a man who said he worked for a phone company, arranging to call at the house the following day.

On 4 June he rang again saying he was in the area and asked to come round.

Soon after the women returned home from a shopping trip, a man arrived claiming to be the engineer.

The daughter took him upstairs, but was grabbed from behind and threatened with a large carving knife and tied up, Mr Hope said.

Elderly mother

The man, who was demanding money, then went downstairs wearing a mask and forced the elderly mother to go up to another bedroom, where he ordered her to sit on a chair and tied her up.

The daughter was then raped repeatedly after being tied to the chair, Mr Hope said.

It was thought the ordeal lasted about an hour. The man threatened to return if they told the police.

After he had gone it was discovered that a dressing gown, a cushion and a quantity of money from the daughter's handbag had been taken.

DNA match

Police discovered the tip of a latex glove stuck to masking tape used to hold the pillowcase around the daughter's head and were able to recover DNA.

As part of their investigation they tested Joyce, who denied all knowledge of what had happened and said he had been working on the day of the attack.

But Mr Hope said a DNA expert had concluded that the self-employed painter and decorator's DNA was extremely likely to be a match for that in the glove.

The trial continues.