Rape-accused told police he was 'only trying to help' drunken woman in Leeds city centre
A man accused of trying to rape a woman in a Leeds city-centre alleyway told police that he was simply “helping” the woman.
Rashid Kwabena Boachie denies attempted rape and sexual assault of the female, as well as rape of another woman in his car almost five years ago.
The 44-year-old is on trial at Leeds Crown Court this week.
The transcripts of his police interview were read to the jury this week, following his arrest.
Video footage of him appearing to guide a woman down Blayds Yard in the city centre in the early hours of August 9 last year were previously played in court.
At one point she tumbles to the floor and is helped to her feet by Boachie, who continues to hold onto her arm.
During his interview, Boachie, of Ashby Terrace, Bramley, said the woman, whom he did not know, had approached him in the street unable to find her friends.
He told officers that she “nearly fell on me”, because she was drunk, so held onto her.
He claimed he was only trying to help her find her friends, whom she said had gone to a chicken takeaway shop but she did not know the way.
The video showed Boachie and the woman stopping behind industrial bins in Blayds Yard, where the woman claimed Boachie tried to remove her underwear, which he denies.
The police officer asked Boachie why she would accuse him, he replied: “Maybe she was drunk so did not know what was going on.”
Boachie and the woman were disturbed by an employee on his break from the nearby Travelodge, who said he had heard the woman screaming for Boachie to get off her.
Boachie said the man was “lying” and that the woman was screaming into her phone at her friends and not him.
The victim herself gave evidence earlier in the trial, telling the jury: “I told him to get the f*** off me several times.
“That’s why the person came out [of the Travelodge], because they heard me shouting.”
Meanwhile, Boachie, who is yet to give evidence in court, is also facing a charge of rape from 2021, in which he is accused of picking up a drunk woman in his car and driving her to a secluded spot to rape her.
His DNA was taken after his arrest in August last year, and it matched a sample taken from the woman in 2021 who reported she had been attacked in the car in Middleton.
She had been out drinking with pals in Hunslet and became separated. She ordered a taxi and when a car pulled up, she got in thinking it was her cab.
However, it was Boachie driving, and she claims he refused to take her to where she wanted.
She claims he drove her to the secluded car park at the John Charles Centre, off Middleton Grove, where he put the seats back and she says he raped her.
Quizzed by police after being arrested last year, he claims it was consensual sex, but the Crown suggests that she was too drunk to give consent.
The trial continues.