5:32pm Wednesday 1st October 2008
By Charlie Campbell
THE jury in the trial of a church-going teacher charged with raping a young girl and attempting to rape a woman will soon retire to consider its verdict.
Jerome Uche, of Deynecourt Gardens, Wanstead, is accused of attacking a 15-year-old girl who came from Germany to stay at his family home over Easter 1995.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard the 48-year-old abused the terrified girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as she slept in the bottom bunk of her bed while his own children slept in the bunk above.
The alleged victim claims that on one occasion Uche raped her on his living room floor while watching a pornographic film when his family was out of the house.
She also told police in Germany that the father-of-four took her to a friend’s flat where he got her drunk on Bailey’s and then raped her again.
Uche is additionally accused of sexually assaulting a woman at his home in October 1995 and attempting to rape her.
However, the defence have suggested that the incidents described never in fact took place.
Mr Uche produced photos that to the Jury which showed his children’s room in 1990 and 1993 without a bunk bed and in August 1995 just after he claims to have purchased the bunk bed.
He said: “All the stories that she has been making up about a bunk bed and me coming into their room are wrong as we never had a bunch bed then but just a double bed.”
Prosecutor Christopher Amor retorted that no photo proves whether the bunk bed had been there during easter when the allegations were made.
Mr Uche replied: “I showed these photos to show the jury and this court that this story has been fabricated and that the complainents have ccollaborated to make these allegations.”
Presiding Judge William Kennedy instructed the jury that there was no photo which demonstrated the exact date of the alleged victim’s visit.
Mr Uche’s first cousin Dr Tony Okore, a psychiatrist at St Anne’s Hospital in Tottenham, spoke as a character witness.
He said: “Jerome grew up with me in the same house in Nigeria and we went to the same primary school and Catholic Church.
“We played football together and knew each other at Secondary School and even when I came to England as a junior doctor in 1991.
“It’s not even possible in my imagination that [these accusations] could take place. There’s been no allegations of any sort in my family before.”
Mr Uche’s wife, Francesca, denied that the alleged abused could have taken place as she would have known.
She said: “There was only inches between the two rooms and our door was permenantly wedged open as the kids were very little.
“I’m a very light sleeper and having children made my sleep lighter and lighter as I would have to change my youngest many times in the night.
“The last time [the alleged victim] came to my house was in 1993 and we didn’t have the bunk beds then. She did not visit in 1995.”
But Mr Amor refered to a written statement made by Mrs Uche at the time of her husband’s arrest which stated the alleged victim was around 15 or 16-years-old the last time she visited.
He added: “She wasn’t that age in 1993 but would have been 13 or 14-years-old.”
Mrs Uche replied that she was under stress when she made her statement and was now sure that she did not visit in 1995.
Uche is accused of indecent assault of a child under 16, inciting a child to commit an act of gross indecency and two counts of rape of a child under 16.
He is also accused of one count of indecent assault on a woman, and the attempted rape of a woman.
Mr Uche denies all charges.
The trial continues.
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