A woman was raped, beaten and kept as an unpaid slave after meeting a man on Match.com, a court heard.
Colin Leacock, 34, allegedly forced the 37-year-old to give him oral sex at his home in St John’s Wood, north west London after they met on the popular dating site in 2015.
He is also accused of punching her in the face and swinging her round by her hair until chunks fell out during a year-long ordeal between March 2015 and March 2016.
Leacock’s sister Mandy, 36, has already pleaded guilty to assault charges after she battered the woman, poured bleach over her in the bath, and pulled her hair out.
Mandy told the woman, who suffers from anxiety and depression, she “wasn’t good enough” for her brother when they were first dating in early 2015.
Southwark Crown Court heard the victim overdosed twice after living in a “state of fear, of depression, being bullied and controlled.”
She was allegedly beaten so much she was left without “proper emotions.”
Mandy forced the victim to move into a home in Maida Vale, where she was regularly assaulted and forced to “prove” she could cook and clean.
Prosecutor David Povall said: “It is the Crown’s case that Colin Leacock both assaulted and raped the complainant and that that was at a time when that complainant was living in a household where she was being bullied and assaulted regularly, sometimes by Colin Leacock but mostly by Colin Leacock’s sister Mandy.”
Povall told the court Colin Leacock met the victim on Match.com in early 2015.
He said: “She was lonely and she went looking for love, romance, on the internet on Match.com.
“In March 2015 online she met Colin Leacock… and matters very quickly developed between them.
“It was clear to her even on those visits that Colin’s sister Mandy was quite a powerful personality and didn’t approve of the relationship.”
He said the victim moved in with Leacock, but “things soon started to turn sour.”
“In particular she was unhappy at the extent to which Mandy Leacock interfered and seemed to dominate her brother Colin,” the lawyer explained.
“She took an overdose of her own medication in March 2015 – she took a second overdose in April 2015 taking her own medication and also medication Colin Leacock had.
“Fortunately neither overdose was really harmful, but it seems to have been that that lead to Mandy Leacock taking a far closer interest still in the relationship and for a time Mandy Leacock moved into the address.”
Mandy, who “didn’t consider her to be good enough for Colin”, insisted the woman move into a new flat after the suicide attempts.
The victim “needed to prove she was capable of cooking and cleaning and doing necessary household work” after moving.
Povall added: “She quickly became an unpaid skivvy, sleeping on the floor, required to clean and after a time soon the victim of repeated assaults.
“She was living in that flat in a state of fear, of depression, being bullied and controlled.
“Sometimes she was made to sit in the bath and she would have bleach poured on her skin.
“There were occasions when she was grabbed by the hair and swung round so that chunks of her hair were pulled out.
“That wasn’t just Mandy, it’s the crown’s case that on at least one occasion when that was happening Colin Leacock joined in and swung her by the hair so the hair came out.
“He also assaulted her on one occasion by punching her in the head, the face, and the ear.”
The court heard Colin forced the woman to give him oral sex twice at his flat when he had started seeing another woman.
He claims the sex was consensual and denies ever assaulting the alleged victim.
The woman told jurors how she was assaulted “everyday,” adding: “I felt humiliated. I didn’t cry because I got that used to it at the time.
“I got used to getting hit, that’s why I didn’t cry.
“I haven’t got proper emotions.”
But she was forced to leave the court after breaking down when she revealed she was “physically starved”.
Jurors heard how Leacock threatened to throw her over a balcony.
The woman said: “I kept saying no. No means no, it means rape.”
Mr Povall said: “Her ordeal with that family continued until the beginning of May 2016 when she walked into a local shop and as a result of talking to on of the people who was working there she was sent on for medical help and the police became involved.’
He added: “Mandy Leacock isn’t in the dock, she has admitted to assaults on [the victim].”
The prosecutor said the convictions do not “make Colin Leacock any more guilty than he would otherwise be”.
Colin Leacock, of Maida Vale, denies two counts of rape and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Mandy Leacock, Maida Vale, has admitted three counts of actual bodily harm.
The trial continues.
This article originally appeared on The Sun.
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