Woman subjected to 12-hour rape in Lurgan flat

The Craigavon Crown Court jury also heard claims that while 24-year-old Darius Porcikas and a third man not before the court were allegedly raping the woman in the living room of her Lurgan flat, her ex-boyfriend was in the next room after the pair had beat him into a state of unconsciousness.

Porcikas, a Lithuanian national from upper Edward Street in Newry, faces a total of 14 charges including five counts of rape, two of sexual assault, two of false imprisonment, causing actual bodily harm and assault, all in relation to the female victim.

He also faces two further charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and actual bodily harm in relation to her ex-partner.

Alongside him in the dock is 23-year-old Vytautas Mikulinas, of Birch Hill Park in Portadown, who faces a single charge of causing actual bodily harm to the woman’s ex-partner.

Prosecuting QC Richard Weir told the jury of six men and six women that a third man remains at large and “has not been made amenable” to gave charges.

Having warned the jury not to be influenced by feelings of sympathy or prejudice but to approach the case in a “cold, reasonable commonsense way”, Mr Weir told the jury how the woman’s ordeal began in the early hours of 13 July, 2011 when the three accused, including the two defendants, were involved in a fight with the ladies ex-partner in the street outside her flat.

She managed to get him inside and was lying beside him on the bed when Porcikas and the third man battered the door down and attacked him again, allegedly using their “hands, feet and a bat” until he was lying on the floor unconscious.

The lawyer claimed the pair also attacked the lady, hitting her on the face, head and neck before launching what he described as a “series of sexual assaults on her”.

Mr Weir recounted how, according to the prosecution case, the woman was raped and described to the jury how she was also allegedly sexually assaulted with the bat which had been used to beat her boyfriend as well as a bottle.

“She tried to escape at one stage,” said the lawyer but was allegedly stopped by Porcikas, adding that “this seems to have gone on for some time and at some stage both men had left the flat” so she called to a neighbour’s house but did not tell him about the alleged attack.

When she went back, however, Porcikas had allegedly returned and he again “assaulted her and subjected her to further sexual assaults”, as well as threatening her with a knife.

The lawyer claimed that throughout her attack, the men were also “repeatedly assaulting” her unconscious ex-partner.

The alleged ordeal ended, the jury heard, after Porcikas told the woman he was “going to take her to the forest to rape her” and it was as she was walking down the street that she managed to get help from a passing couple who took her into a local shop and called the police.

An ambulance was also called for her ex-partner and Mr Weir said when doctors examined him, they found “multiple injuries” which needed “extensive treatment”.

He added that so severe were the injuries that he now needs help with everyday tasks and has lost the power in his right arm and leg but that his recollection of the attack “is seriously limited if not non-existent”.

Crime scene investigators examined the lady’s flat and they found DNA evidence which allegedly linked Porcikas to the attack.

He was questioned by police but maintained it was the third man who committed the sexual assaults.

The trial continues.