A man has gone on trial at the High Court accused of committing a string of violent sexual assaults in properties in Perth city centre.
Graeme Bell, 32, of Uist Place, Perth, faces four charges, relating to four individual women, with two alleging he raped his victims and the others that he attempted to do so.
The first of the attacks is said to have taken place on December 5 2012, with the other three occurring over just two days, on February 14 and 15 last year.
The court in Perth heard from two of Bell’s alleged victims, both of whom were workers in the sex trade at the time.
The first, a 41-year-old woman, told how Bell adopted a boxer’s pose as he struck her, leaving her dazed, before raping her in the working flat she shared with another prostitute.
She said: “He tried to grab me by the throat, demanded money and then pushed me on to the bed before climbing on top of me. I kicked, raised both my legs and kicked out at him and he hit the wall.
“I tried to leave the room but he was already up and bouncing about like Rocky adopting a boxer’s stance and then he punched me.”
The witness said the blow had almost knocked her out and had succeeded in “making her compliant” as she simply “wanted to get out alive”.
She said he then raped her, telling her all the while: “Why are you crying? You’re a prostitute.”
The second victim, who accuses Bell of attempting to rape and rob her on February 15, said he arrived at her flat for an arranged appointment.
Moments after his arrival, however, he told her: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
“I immediately thought that this was going to be really bad,” she said.
“I told him I was going to call 999, but he just looked at me in disbelief and questioned how I could do that as I was a prostitute.”
When she began to scream at the top of her voice, however, he fled.
The trial, before Lord Burns and a jury continues.