Man charged with rape at Leeds sports-centre car park said he wanted to meet up with alleged victim
A man charged with raping a woman in his car at the John Charles Centre for Sports told a court he asked to meet the woman the next day.
The woman had got in his car, mistaking it for a taxi after a night out in Hunslet, and claimed Rashid Kwabena Boachie took her to the secluded car park to rape her.
But 44-year-old Boachie is adamant the drunken woman asked him for sex, despite only just meeting him, he told the jury during his trial at Leeds Crown Court.
He said she was directing him in his car, because he said he did not know where he was going.
They pulled into the deserted sports centre car park off Middleton Grove in the early hours of August 29, 2021, claiming it was the woman’s idea to park there.
Grainy CCTV footage from the car park was played to the jury, which showed the woman getting out of the car briefly.
Asked in court why she did that, Boachie said she was removing her jeans.
Asked by his barrister whether the woman seemed frightened or upset, Boachie replied: “No”.
Afterwards, he said he drove the woman to where she wanted, and he asked to meet her again the next day.
He said she agreed, but he claimed she did not show up the next day, despite him waiting at the meeting point for 30 minutes.
Asked why he did not simply get her number the night before, he said he asked several times.
The woman contacted the police to report she had been raped hours after being dropped off.
Boachie’s DNA was found on her, but the police had no record of him.
It was not until August last year was he was arrested for an attempted rape and sexual assault of a drunken woman in Leeds city centre, that his DNA was taken and which matched up from the 2021 rape accusation.
It was alleged that he guided the lone, drunken woman down to Blayds Yard where he tried to rape her.
But he told the jury that the woman approached him several times in the street and he was simply trying to help her find her friends.
Boachie, of Ashby Terrace, Bramley, said he was holding onto her because it was clear she had been drinking and was unsteady.
They ended up behind industrial bins next to the Travelodge.
A worker from the hotel gave evidence in court last week that he heard the woman shouting for Boachie to get off her and so came to her rescue.
Boachie claimed she was not shouting at him, but to her friends down the phone.
He said: “I did not do anything. I was trying to help her.”
The trial continues.