Woman heard ‘I’ve got a gun’ before alleged 2003 Bolton rape

Paul Quinn, 51, is on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of raping the woman at an isolated embankment off the M61 between Little Hulton and Farnworth in 2003.

The jury of seven women and five men heard a statement given by the woman at the time about the lead-up to the assault as she was walking alone in the early hours of the morning.

The statement, read by Abigail Husbands, prosecuting, said: “I heard a male voice coming from the wooded area: ‘I think you should come into the bushes, I have a gun pointed at your head’.

“The voice sounded very close and was a local accent. I could not see anyone.”

The trial was opened at Manchester Crown Court (Image: Anthony Moss)

The woman’s statement described how she had continued walking after telling the unseen voice that she was going to call the police before feeling an “almighty force”.

She described how she was then dragged down the embankment and horrifically assaulted.

Her statement said: “I was constantly thinking he was going to kill me, I was so frightened.”

A description that the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave of her attacker at the time said that he was white, with olive or tanned skin and dark brown to black hair.

She also said he had been wearing an open white shirt.

The trial heard security guard Andrew Malkinson was wrongly identified as the rapist in the police investigation and was convicted and jailed for 17 years for a crime he had not committed.

The court heard that Andrew Malkinson wrongly spent 17 years in jail (Image: GMP)

Quinn was not interviewed by police until 2022, by which time Mr Malkinson had already been released.

John Price KC, prosecuting, told the jury how analysis of Quinn’s internet history after news broke in 2022 showed his level of interest in the case.

He said that Quinn, by then living in Devon, searched the website of the Manchester Evening News 249 times between August and December 2022.

Mr Price also told jurors the defendant had provided a DNA specimen to be kept on the national database in 2012.

And after news headlines about the new DNA link,  the court heard how Quinn appeared to have begun researching the subject.

Mr Price told jurors in August 2022 he searched Google for “how long is DNA kept in database?”, and “why do I keep sweating all the time?”

Other searches included “Can you refuse to give a DNA sample to the police UK? Is my DNA in a database UK?”

Quinn, of Whipton Barton Road, Exeter, denies two counts of rape, one count of attempt to strangle, and one count of assault, intending to cause grievous bodily harm.

The trial, before Mr Justice Robert Bright, continues.