Ex-newsagent charged with rape fled to Spain after death threats

 

A former Bath newsagent accused of raping three girls at his shop fled to Spain when the allegations first broke because death threats had been made against him, a court heard. Spanish national Lewis Knight told police that an irate man had gone to his newsagents in Mount Road, Southdown, and threatened to burn him alive. A jury at Bristol Crown Court heard that the man was arrested but that Knight said he continued to receive death threats. The 60-year-old, of Torres De Segre in Spain, denies four charges of rape, six charges of indecent assault and one charge of indecency with a child in the 1990s. Jurors in Knight's trial have heard that he was arrested in 1999 over the allegations, which he denied, and had been granted bail. He claims it was when he received death threats at his shop that he decided to flee to Spain. The defendant had handed in his passport but applied for a replacement which he was sent. Three days before he was due to appear for trial in February 2000, he went on the run in Spain. Andrew Macfarlane, prosecuting, confirmed that a man had been arrested in May 1999 for making threats to kill. He said the man had gone to Knight's shop and said: "I'm going to burn you alive. You are dead, mate." Police records show that Knight made a statement about the attacks and the man, who cannot be identified, was convicted. However, Knight said he received further death threats from the man and felt "compelled to disappear". Det Sgt Simon Rickwood, of Avon and Somerset police, told the court he had gone with a colleague to Madrid on September 29 last year to arrest Knight and bring him back to the UK to face the charges. The jury had previously heard that Knight allegedly raped his first victim when she was aged 13 or 14 and indecently assaulted her. He was said to have raped his second victim twice when she was aged 14 or 15, including once in the shop's cigar cupboard. Jurors heard that Knight allegedly raped his third victim while she was still 12, indecently assaulted her twice and carried out an act of indecency. He is said to have told his victims to keep what he had done their "secret". The trial continues.