GLASGOW MAN DENIES RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES
A MAN accused of raping a mother as her two young children slept beside her yesterday told the High Court in Edinburgh that he had been a frequent visitor to the home.Mr Peter Thomas, 27, described as a prisoner, denies that he entered the house in Parkhead, Glasgow, masked and armed, and raped the mother.
He also denies committing three other sexual attacks on women.
He said that before August 28, the date of the alleged rape, he had regularly visited the 27-year-old mother's home with his former girlfriend.
He said they went to the house three or four times a week for about a year before August 28.
He and his girlfriend babysat for the woman.
Mr Thomas claimed that genetic fingerprinting tests said by a forensic expert to link the accused to the woman's home could be explained.
He said stains on the mother's dressing gown which were said to have matched his blood sample could have got there when he and his girlfriend had intercourse during their frequent visits.
Earlier, the mother told the court that she did not know the accused and said he never babysat for her.
She knew his former girlfriend, but she had never babysat for her.
She said Mr Thomas's face was familiar, but could not identify him as her attacker because the man had been masked.
Mr Thomas said his former girlfriend, with whom he had quarrelled, could not be traced.
If she were found she would confirm his claims about visiting the woman's home frequently.
Mr Thomas has pleaded not guilty to assaulting and raping the mother.
He also denies three charges of assault with intent to rape women in the Borders between August 27 and September 18 last year.
Earlier in the trial a 23-year-old woman told how she woke in a hotel near Selkirk to find herself gagged.
She said a man wearing a black felt hat snatched at her nightdress and threatened her with a knife.
In court, she identified Mr Thomas as her attacker.
Mr Thomas said yesterday: "I don't even know where Selkirk is." He claimed that at the time of the alleged offences at Selkirk and another alleged attack on a 39-year-old woman in Moffat he was in his sister's home in Dumfries.
The trial continues.
