Model murder accused hurt woman

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/london/7241102.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A woman has told a court of her ordeal at the hands of the man accused of murdering model Sally Anne Bowman.

Mark Dixie, 37, denies killing the 18-year-old in Croydon, south London, during a sex attack, in September 2005.

The Old Bailey was told that, in 1988 when Mr Dixie was 17, he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting and punching a Jehovah's Witness.

The woman, now aged in her 60s, told the court he threatened to kill her and thought she was going to be raped.

Giving evidence from behind a screen the mother-of-three said she called at Mr Dixie's flat to see his girlfriend Sandra, who had recently lost their baby.

She left after finding no-one in but ran into Mr Dixie who asked her to return to their flat in Plumstead, south-east London.

He told me not to scream or else he would kill me Court witness

When they got to the flat she let the defendant go in first and when he said Sandra was not in she refused to enter and got in a lift to leave, the jury was told.

She told the court Mr Dixie then ran into the lift and tried to expose himself. When she tried to get out he punched her on the left side of her face.

"His leg was going up and down my leg. My skirt went up a bit. He was still fumbling with himself and saying 'Please, I need this'," she told the court.

"I definitely thought he was going to rape me. He told me not to scream or else he would kill me."

Trial adjourned

The woman said she persuaded Mr Dixie to leave the flats and he agreed to go to her home in her car.

She denied a defence suggestion Mr Dixie hit her because she suggested it was God's will that the baby had died, because he would not make a good father.

Mr Dixie denies killing Miss Bowman but confesses to having sex with her after finding her body on her driveway.

The trial has been adjourned until next week.