A WINCHESTER shop worker repeatedly raped a woman in a string of drunken attacks, during which he would also strangle and stab her, the city’s crown court was told yesterday.

A jury heard how Peter Higgins, who worked at the city’s Topps Tiles store, would tell his victim: “It might hurt you but it doesn’t hurt me.”

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sobbed as she described the 56-year-old’s violence towards her.

“It just hurt so much,” she said.

“I told him what he had done was rape, but he said ‘no, I didn’t’.

“I thought he would kill me. I’m terrified he’ll come after me now.”

Prosecuting counsel Simon Foster said the woman had suffered whisky-fuelled serious sexual assaults.

“She shouted at him, told him to get off and told him that he was hurting her – none of which had any discernible effect on the defendant,” he said.

“He told her that she wanted it, while she made it plain that she did not.”

Higgins once received a warning from Topps Tiles for turning up for work smelling of alcohol.

Mr Foster said whenever he was not at work he would drink heavily – up to a litre of whisky in a weekend – and would then go and search out the victim at her home.

Those who lived near the attacks recalled sometimes hearing screams.

Higgins, of Fromond Road, Weeke, denies two counts of rape, an attempted rape and two assault charges, all said to have taken place between January 2012 and October last year.

Wearing jeans and blue sweatshirt, he sat impassive in the dock while his victim said she “cried and cried” after each rape.

Proceeding.