A woman who claims she was raped by a man after sharing an UberPool home with him texted friends and family to say she feared she had her “story mixed up”, a court heard last Tuesday.
Edward Gabbai, 30, who has a doctorate from Cambridge University, is on trial charged with raping a Swedish woman, a 17-year-old escort, and a 23-year-old woman he ride-shared with.
Giving evidence at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday 20 March, the third of his alleged victims said Gabbai had told her he would “make it worse for her” if she did not do what he ordered her to do.
“I did what he said because I wanted to avoid further injury,” she said.
Jurors were shown transcripts of messages she sent to family and friends in which she worried she may not have her story straight.
In one text message to her friend, she wrote: “What if I got my story mixed up? What if I’m an attention seeker and I twisted this?”
But giving evidence, she said that she wrote that message because there were moments she doubted herself, but that she was sure “he is guilty”.
In a series of text messages to her mum, she said: “What if I got it all wrong and I’m ruining a life for no reason?” to which her mum replied: “You have not lied and you did not give consent.”
Sarah Forshaw QC, defending, said: “When you said to your mum and a number of your friends that you were worried that you had twisted it, and that he might be innocent, is that true?’
The woman said: “No I don’t think I was twisting what happened. I know that now. I was scared I wouldn’t be believed.”
The court heard that Gabbai filmed the rape on his mobile phone. Jurors were shown footage of a video on Gabbai’s mobile which showed him telling the 23-year-old woman to face him with her eyes closed, before he slapped her and she shouted: “Stop, stop, stop.”
The court heard that the 23-year-old woman met Gabbai after a night out with friends in December 2016. Her phone battery died and she asked “for a lighter or a taxi number”.
When questioned by Sarah Forshaw QC, defending, the woman said she could not recall Gabbai and herself discussing “dominant sex” in the taxi ride home, and denied he had given her a safe word, “bells”, to use when she wanted him to stop.
She said to the court: “I don’t think there was any discussion of a safe word.”
She told police officers she thought Gabbai would suffocate her and repeated several times in court that he told her: “If you cry out or try to get away I’ll make it worse for you.”
Gabbai, of Borehamwood, was arrested in December 2016 and denies five counts of rape.
The trial continues.
