MAN RAPED PARTNER WHILE SHE WAS IN LABOUR.

A woman was raped while she was in labour by her partner on her own bed, a court has heard. The woman began having severe contractions and tried to alleviate the pain by getting on her hands and knees.

But then her partner woke up, told her he was ‘feeling horny’ and allegedly started raping her despite her cries of pain and shouting for him to stop. After the attack he offered to run her a bath before she was taken to hospital to give birth four hours later.

Prosecutor Michael Greenhalgh told Hull Crown Court said the couple were in bed when the woman entered the advanced stages of labour around 11.30pm.

‘The defendant fell asleep but she did not. The contractions continued as did her discomfort,’ said Mr Greenhalgh.

‘She was in bed, naked as she normally would be. In order to try and relieve the pressure and the pain of the contractions, she got onto all fours because she had been told that was a way of relieving the pain. She was in that position when the defendant woke up.

‘He saw her naked on all fours and said “I feel horny”, to which she replied “are you serious?”. The defendant then got behind her and started having sex with her.’

Mr Greenhalgh said the man, in his 40s, did not listen to his partner’s protests.

‘She made it clear to him that that was not something she wanted or something she was consenting to,’ he said.

‘How did she do that? Well, in the first place it was obvious, one might have thought, because she was crying in pain from the contractions, but she also told him to stop it and said to him “please don’t”.

‘The defendant didn’t listen to that and continued having sex with her.’

Mr Greenhalgh said, when the man had finished, he then ‘acted as if nothing had happened’.

Following the baby’s birth, the man’s partner went to stay with her mother because the heating at the couple’s property was broken. After returning home to him, though, she decided to report the alleged rape to her family and police.

Mr Greenhalgh said initial texts between the pair after their baby’s birth were of affection and excitement because of their child, but that the tone soon changed when she went back home.

‘The woman will note two things precipitated that change,’ he said.

‘Firstly, she was back in the bedroom where this happened, which is a stark and uncomfortable reminder to her. And, he behaved in an inappropriate way with the new baby.

‘The child is crying and he wouldn’t let her pick the child up and refers to it as a “spoilt little s***”. It was at that point she decided she couldn’t forget what has happened.’

The man is denying the pair had sex.