A woman wept as she told a court how Stuart Hall raped her like a ‘rag doll’ when she was just 12, then later at two BBC studios in Manchester.
The woman, known only as girl B, wept as she told a jury how paedophile ‘predator’ Hall, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, subjected her to years of abuse.
Hall, 84, has pleaded not guilty to 20 allegations of rape and indecent assault between 1976 and 1981 against two young girls, who knew him as a family friend.
Girl B said she was first attacked by Hall when she was just 12 in the mid-1970s, when she was working at a stables.
On one occasion she said, the TV celebrity turned up unannounced on a motorbike.
Hall took her to a corner of the stables and pushed her up against the wall, she told the jury.
She said: “He pushed his mouth on mine. He forced his tongue between my teeth. He felt my body, particularly my chest. My dungarees were removed.
“He was constantly speaking, telling me I was beautiful and lovely and he managed to get inside my shirt. His hands travelled down.
“All the time I was being pushed against the wall. I was smaller than him, he had to lift me.”
The victim, now in her late 40s, wiped away tears as she said the former BBC broadcaster forced his tongue in her mouth, repeating ‘you’re special’ as he raped her like a ‘rag doll’.
She said Hall made ‘guttural’ noises as she was raped, which she described as ‘excruciatingly painful’.
Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, asked how she felt at the time.
She replied: “Extremely frightened and very confused and very shocked, almost shocked to the point of immobility.”
Mr Wright asked: “Did you say anything to him?”
Girl B replied: “No. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t fight. I didn’t do anything, actually. I just was there, just like a rag doll. I’m sorry.
“He said it repeatedly, I was special. He never stopped speaking, repeating the same thing.
“He shuddered and released me. I remember him telling me he loved me, I was special, he loved me, I was beautiful and he left.
“I was completely numb and I just walked out, I didn’t say anything. I didn’t tell a soul.”
The next attack came a year later, when the victim awoke from a sleep to find Hall molesting her, she told the jury.
She said: “I woke up feeling a very warm sensation between my legs, and hearing somebody speaking to me.
“I opened my eyes and saw Stuart Hall.”
She said she shut her eyes as quickly as she opened them but Hall continued to touch her for ‘what felt like an eternity’.
She added: “I did not do anything. I just lay as rigid and still as I could.”
Girl B said Hall went on to rape her at two BBC studios in Manchester – Piccadilly and Oxford Road.
She said she was aged 13 going on 14 when she became interested in a career in television.
She claims Hall, who was a regional news presenter at the time, invited her to watch him work at Piccadilly.
She said: “There was no specific place that was his but there was somewhere where he went, where I went with him. I was alone a lot with him.
“Usually there would be champagne, which I was not forced to drink but I was expected to drink by Stuart.”
Intercourse would then take place, usually on a sofa, she told Mr Wright. She told the jury this happened around eight times.
“It was expected and I just did it. I figured that the quicker it was done, the quicker it was over and it would stop,” she said
“He told me categorically that I wanted it. Those words remain in my head. It was a constant narrative – how beautiful I was, how much I wanted it, how my body had responded.”
The witness said she was aged 14 or 15 when a similar pattern of abuse occurred at the BBC’s Oxford Road studios.
She said Hall had a dressing room with two rooms which belonged to the BBC presenter.
One of the rooms had a leather sofa on the back wall and there was a shelf with various pictures of women, she told the jury.
She said: “I spent a lot of time locked in there. Not answering the door. He told me not to answer the door. He locked me in.”
Again champagne was consumed before intercourse, she said.
Mr Wright asked her: “Did he ever ask you whether you wanted to have sexual intercourse?”
She replied: “It was never a question. It was expected.”
She said sex took place on a similar number of occasions to Piccadilly.
The prosecutor asked: “How did you feel?” to which she replied: “Dirty. Ashamed. Responsible and wanting to take the responsibility of it.
“Feeling it was my fault because I never fought back. I just used to lie there. I just used to take myself to a different place in my head.”
She said she felt she did not have a choice in the situation.
Girl B added: “The choice I made was not to tell. The choice I made was to take the responsibility.”
Mr Wright asked her: “Did you give him any indication that you wanted to participate in these acts?”
She said: “I never gave him any indication. Did I do what was expected? Yes, but I did not ask.”
Hall was jailed last year after he pleaded guilty to 14 offences of indecent assault against 13 girls, aged nine to 17.
He was sentenced at Preston Court to 15 months in prison, which was subsequently increased to 30 months at the Court of Appeal.
Image courtesy of BBC, via YouTube, with thanks.
