Teen guilty of raping woman faces prison

Kieran Corless, 18, denied ever attacking the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

But after a five-day trial the jury returned a majority guilty verdict.

Corless forced his tearful victim to stay in her home for three-and-a-half hours as he tied her up and raped her.

It was only when he broke down and tried to kill himself that she was able to escape.

In a video recording played in court the victim told police that she had opened the door with a knife behind her back.

When he saw the knife an argument started and he used two dressing gown belts to tie up the victim.

She said: ‘I was screaming, “You don’t want to do this, you don’t want to do this!”.

‘He bent me over and I remember thinking, “I think he is going to rape me, I know he is going to rape me in a minute”.’

She added: ‘I knew he was going to kill me.

‘I remember thinking so clearly in my head, “I am going to die. I know I am going to die”.’

After this, she said Corless stopped the assault and broke down before attempting to kill himself, first crushing prescription pills into water and drinking them and then attempting to hang himself.

Corless was found guilty of rape and sexual assault, but not guilty of attempting to render someone unconscious, insensible or incapable of resistance with intent.

A charge of putting a person in fear of violence through harassment was dropped.

During the trial, Unyime Davies, for Corless, said he had never raped the girl.

She said he visited the girl on the morning of November 13 last year but the pair had had consensual sex.

Ms Davies told the court an argument between the pair had erupted when Corless admitted to the girl after having sex with her that he might be gay and was not attracted to her.

She claimed this prompted the victim to slap Corless across the face – and that this slap was not in self-defence, as had previously been claimed in court.

Corless, of no fixed address but previously of Lee-on-the-Solent, is due to be sentenced on May 20. The maximum sentence for rape is life.