Woman tells of motorway terror (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Woman tells of motorway terror

9:49am Wednesday 14th February 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

A SWINDON woman who claims she was raped and told she was going to die has recalled the terrifying moment when her alleged attacker forced the car which she was driving to career into an articulated lorry on the M4.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was speaking at Bristol Crown Court on the first day of the trial of Penhill man Darren Haakansen.

Haakansen, of Penhill Drive, is accused of rape, false imprisonment, making a threat to kill and attempted murder on July 10 last year.

advertisement He is also charged with a second count of rape.

He denies all five of the charges.

Wearing a dark suit and light blue shirt and tie, the 37-year-old listened intently as his alleged victim told the jury of seven men and five women about her horrifying ordeal.

Haakansen is alleged to have attempted to throttle the woman at her home on July 10. She says he then raped her.

Afterwards, the court heard he told his victim he would hang himself from the rafters of her loft.

But the woman claims her nightmare continued when Haakansen took a knife from her kitchen, after she promised to drive him away in her car.

Adam Vaitilingam, prosecuting, said his client drove from junction 16 of the M4 to Reading before turning back towards Swindon.

He said Haakansen told her to overtake a 44 tonne articulated lorry and said the lorry driver had seen a white arm yank the car's steering wheel down forcing the car to collide with his front off-side.

The woman's car then spun in front of the lorry before coming to a standstill on the hard shoulder facing in the opposite direction to the traffic.

Earlier, the woman recalled the moment Haakansen had begun the evening of terror.

Describing him as very angry she said he pushed her through her front door.

"He started to strangle me," the woman said.

"He had his thumbs and his fingers around my throat.

"I said he wanted to kill me. He told me not to scream or shout and not to bring any attention to myself - not to make a noise.

"He then rolled up his shirt and tried to gag me, but I told him I would not shout and I would be quiet."

After grabbing her throat for a third time, the victim said Haakansen then pushed her upstairs.

"He said that he was going to kill himself and he was going to hang himself from the rafters of my loft and the thought of him dead in my house would live with me forever," she said.

It was after this that Haakansen raped her, she said.

"He then asked me for my car keys and I said no,' she said.

"I was not going to hand my car keys over.

"I told him that if he left I would drop him off wherever he wanted to go.

He went into the kitchen, took a knife out of my knife rack, put it down his trousers and said If you go outside and scream or shout I will stab you.' "I thought that while I had control of the car I had control of the situation.

"I was feeling scared, frightened - I just wanted him to go.

"He had taken the vodka bottle and had a knife with him. He was still taking tablets.

"We got to Reading and we turned back towards Swindon heading west. He told me to pull out in the middle lane and speed up. He reached over and grabbed the steering wheel, the car crashed."

Under cross examination from defence barrister Tim Bradbury, the woman denied that she had caused the crash by reaching over to the passenger side of the car for her mobile phone and of deliberately trying to crash the car.

The trial continues