Chess star told police of 'rape'

Jessie Gilbert fell from an eighth floor hotel window

A chess champion told police how her father would put his hand over her mouth and rape her, a court has heard.

Two years after the recorded interview Jessie Gilbert, 19, from Croydon, south London, fell to her death from a hotel window in the Czech Republic.

Guildford Crown Court was played the interview and also heard that a failed suicide bid by Jessie in 2004 led to a police inquiry and her father's arrest.

Ian Gilbert denies five counts of rape between 1995 and 2000.

Chess tournament

During the police interview Jessie described how her father would "get too close" and "would be a bit touchy".

Jessie said that the first rape had taken place when she was eight, at her home in Woldingham, Surrey.

Ian Gilbert denies five counts of rape

She recalled being raped on a holiday in Cornwall.

"I was asleep and he sat on my bed and I woke up. He did not say anything.

"He put his hand over my mouth then he took off my pyjamas and raped me."

Jessie said her father raped her over the next five years until she was about 13.

She did not consent. She was scared. She pretended it wasn't happening Dorian Lovell-Pank QC

Earlier jurors heard how Jessie was taking part in the Czech Open tournament when she died in July.

Dorian Lovell-Pank QC, prosecuting, told jurors how Jessie got "very drunk" with friends in May 2004 and told them her father had raped and sexually abused her.

The next day, she took an overdose, but survived.

Possessive bully

The prosecutor told the jury: "It rather looks as though it was a real suicide attempt because she had hidden the packet (of drugs) so no-one would find it, and would not tell the hospital staff what she had taken."

He said Gilbert was "possessive" and "a bully".

Mr Lovell-Pank said: "She did not consent. She was scared. She pretended it wasn't happening," he said.

The court heard Mr Gilbert was arrested three times, the last occasion in May 2005 when he said in a police interview about Jessie: "Obviously someone who could play chess at that sort of level is able to create all sorts of scenarios in her mind."

Mr Gilbert, 48, a director at the Royal Bank of Scotland, denies five counts of raping Jessie between 1995 and 2000.