Woman tells of moment she discovered 'naked lady' on church steps

A woman has described the moment she happened upon another woman in a state of undress on the steps of a Cornish churchyard in the early hours of the morning.

She was giving evidence on day three of the trial into alleged sexual assault on the steps of St Michael’s Church in Helston.

Before Truro Crown Court are Calvin Rosevear, from Mullion, and Joe Skewes, from Helston.

They are charged with a total of six offences relating to an alleged incident in Helston during the early hours of July 9 last year.

Rosevear is charged with rape involving penetration of the mouth, and additionally with sexual assault.

Skewes is charged with three counts of sexual assault and one of assault by penetration using fingers.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

You can read more from the first and second day of the trial here:

• Woman tells court she was sexually assaulted in Helston churchyard

• Woman denies saying 'I need a sh*g' before alleged sexual assault in Helston

The court heard from a woman and her partner who had passed the complainant and two men on the steps leading up to the churchyard, as they returned from a night out.

She described the woman as being in a state of undress, bent over a man lying down, with a second man behind her.

Describing her as a “naked lady,” she later said the woman’s top had been pulled up and her skirt down.

She told the court: “It was all just a bit weird. I didn’t know what to think to be honest.

“We walked through the churchyard and as we got out the other side I hesitated and said to my partner ‘Did you just see what I saw?’

“I thought, ‘Maybe she needs a bit of help’.”

She initially said to her partner to go back, but he then called for her to go with him.

The woman said of the complainant: “She didn’t quite seem all together.”

She went on to add: “I went up to the girl and I said to her ‘Come on babe, you’re better than that’.

“She was not with it really and she was crying.

“Then as we were walking down the hill she was saying, ‘They didn’t do anything, they didn’t do anything.’ “She was slurring her words and saying she didn’t know what she was doing and felt confused.”

She added that the complainant then kept saying ‘Thank you’ to her as they walked back to the Beehive to find her friend.

The court also heard from one of the complainant’s friends, who she had been out with that night.

She explained that by the time they reached the Beehive pub the complainant was “very drunk” and at one point left the bar area, saying she needed the toilet.

The friend said she did not see the complainant again for some time and had picked up her phone to call her when she realised there was a message from her – but before she could read it the complainant came back into the pub, crying.

The jury was shown photos of the messages, sent on Snapchat, which the friend had asked her mum to take photos of the next day before they disappeared [as happens on Snapchat]. The messages included ‘Where are you’ and the word ‘Hemp’, which the complainant earlier told the jury she believed was her trying to write the word ‘Help’.

The friend told the jury that the complainant was “crying her eyes out”, with mascara running down her face, and they had gone to sit outside on the steps of the Guildhall.

She said: “[The complainant] had said she had met two guys and they told her I [the friend] was up at the graveyard. She said they had ripped her nails off because they didn’t like them and that they took her clothes off, and they took her underwear, and they fingered her.

“She was very drunk so it was very slurred. I also noticed she had a graze on her hand.”

Nigel Wraith, defence barrister for Rosevear, asked the witness whether she had told a work colleague: “It didn’t happen as [the complainant] was saying. I won’t lie for her in court.”

The witness denied saying this.

Mr Wraith then referred to a statement the witness had made to police shortly after the alleged incident, in which she said three of the complainant’s false nails were missing that had been intact earlier that night.

“You were able to say to the officer you believed it was her right hand,” said Mr Wraith, who then pointed to a photograph taken the morning after the alleged incident, of the complainant’s hand holding a mobile phone containing messages.

He added: “Would you agree that’s a right hand holding the phone? Would you agree there appears to be five fingernails on that right hand?”

The witness agreed there was. When asked by Mr Wraith why she said three nails were missing, the witness replied: “Because that’s what I saw.”

Mr Wraith went on to add: “So those nails, if you see a picture later, must have been put back on? If those are the nails holding the mobile phone,” to which the witness replied: “I’m not sure.”

Also giving evidence was a man the complainant knew through work, who had walked with her across the road from the Beehive to outside the Museum of Cornish Life, to be sick.

He described her as being drunk and that she “didn’t feel much better” after being sick. They then began a conversation about a mutual work colleague, adding: “She lifted up her top and her breasts were still in her bra, but she fell back when she did it and she cracked her fingernail.”

He said her hand was also red from the fall, but did not appear to be injured or grazed at that time.

He told the court that two men sat on the steps nearby had been talking about a friend known to both him and the complainant.

The complainant then went to sit with them and the man returned to the Beehive, telling the court: “I turned around to [the complainant] and said, ‘Are you alright?’ I didn’t see any danger at that time.

“She said, ‘I’m alright thank you’ and I said I was going back.”

In cross examination he said he had more than ten drinks that night and described himself as “near blackout” drunk. He said of his memory that night: “My memory isn’t complete, but I have bits of what I saw.”

When asked by defence barrister Mr Wraith: “When you said they were talking about [the friend] do you think that’s something [the complainant] told you later and you adopted as your own memory?” he replied: “That is a possibility.”

The complainant was also brought back to answer further questions from Mr Wraith, who referred to a statement she made on Tuesday, in which she told the court: “I was a 19-year-old girl being led into a dark place by two men twice my age.” [Both men were 39 at the time of their arrest.] Mr Wraith asked: “What was the relevance of them being twice your age?”

The woman replied: “I wanted to say that they should have known better and I was vulnerable to the two of them.”

Mr Wraith asked: “Were you trying to indicate to the jury that you would not be interested in men twice your own age?” and the complainant said that was not what she was saying.

Mr Wraith asked: “You accept that, certainly at the time of this incident, you had an attraction to older men?”

To which she replied: “Just because I had an attraction to older men doesn’t mean I was attracted to them [the defendants]. I wasn’t attracted to them, especially if it was non-consensual.”

The trial continues.