By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A YOUNG mother told a jury she grabbed the gun of a man who was raping her after he had threatened to kill her if she didn’t do what he said.

Fearing for her life and her sleeping twins during the alleged sexual assault, the woman said she pulled the trigger - only to find out it was a toy.

The 21-year-old pointed out Anthony Penn, 43, in the Supreme Court yesterday as the man who allegedly put the gun to her head.

She told the court she had been willing to do anything at that point. She later noticed the gun on the bed, she said, reached for it and pulled the trigger, but it turned out to be a toy.

Penn, of Sandy Point, Abaco, is charged with raping the woman. It is claimed he had sex with the woman, who cannot be named, without her consent on the night of April 25, 2011

Prosecutors Anthony Delaney, Vernal Collie, Koschina Marshall and Patrick Sweeting alleged that Penn broke into the woman’s home in Nassau and forced her to have sex with him. He denies rape and says the sexual intercourse between the two was consensual.

Koschina Marshall asked the woman if she was able to recall the night in question. The woman described the experience as ‘awful’ saying: “I recall being woken up by a male wearing dark clothing. He woke me up with a gun to my head and told me not to move or he’d kill me.

“I was scared. My children were in the back of me. And because I was scared for them I did not make a sound.”

The alleged victim said Penn asked her ‘where is the money?’

“I told him I didn’t have any money,” she said.

He asked her for her cell phone before looking on her dresser for a purse, but found no money in the Gucci wallet, the court heard.

“When he came back to me, he asked me who I was,” the woman said.

She didn’t give her name, she said, but told him she was related to another woman who lived there.

He allegedly continued asking her questions such as, ‘how old I was’ and ‘if I was pregnant.’

She answered truthfully to the first question, she told the court, but to the second question she said: “I lied and said I was a month pregnant because I felt if I told him that, he would not harm me.”

She claimed she started to cry and hesitated when he told her to lie down on the bed, but did so when he reiterated he would kill her if she didn’t do what he said.

“He started to loosen his belt. Then and there in my mind, I knew he wanted to rape me,” she said.

She was worried for her children, the court heard, but turned on her stomach, feeling Penn’s hands on her waist before he pulled her black tights down to her knees.

“I started to cry even more,” she said. Thinking about the situation she was in, she asked him to at least use a condom and he nodded, the court heard.

She claimed she was willing to do anything at that point if it meant her life and her twins could be spared from harm.

The woman told the court that during the attack she looked around for the gun, knowing that he did not have it because his hands were not free.

She noticed the ‘gun’ on the bed and reached for it, she said, but she immediately knew it was fake when she pulled the trigger on the ‘lightweight’ weapon.

“At that time I felt so foolish and stupid because it was a toy gun,” she said.

They started to struggle in the bedroom, the court heard, then in the hallway where another woman, who asked what was going on, joined in after the alleged rape victim explained what the man did to her.

The alleged victim’s sister also joined in the struggle, the court was told, brandishing a kitchen knife which she used to stab and swing at Penn.

Penn allegedly fought back with his fists and later pulled a screwdriver to stab one of the woman who had joined the fight.

They pinned him on the ground and found a neighbour who called the police, the court heard.

The woman was taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital where she was examined by a physician in the presence of a female police officer.

Terell Butler, defending, suggested the alleged victim knew her client before the alleged attack, knew him because he frequented her house to sell marijuana and cocaine to a relative and during those visits had sexual intercourse with him and voluntarily had sex with him on the day in question when he visited around 7pm.

“No ma’am,” was her answer to the suggestions.

Ms Butler questioned the significance of telling her attacker the name of her sister and that she was related to her.

“Did you know if he knew your sister?” the attorney asked.

The woman said: “No ma’am.”

“I’m suggesting you knew he knew your sister,” said the attorney.

Moving on to the struggle and her client’s alleged retaliation, she suggested that he didn’t retaliate because he was unconscious in a pool of blood, because he was hit in the back of the head.

The woman said it was not true and denied that she fabricated her claim of being raped because of this.

She was asked to say where the accused hit the other two women but she could not recall.

Ms Butler concluded by suggesting to the woman that she had consensual sex with Penn. The woman again said no.

The trial is due to resume next week.