‘Predatory’ Jack Tweed and friend accused of rape

An east London court was told yesterday how Jack Tweed, widower of the reality TV phenomenon Jade Goody, raped a teenager he had picked up at a Mayfair nightclub last September. He allegedly took her back to his home in Woodford Green where, together with another man, Anthony Davis, he raped the girl while her friends tried to break into the room to rescue her.

Both Tweed, 22, and Davis, 26, deny charges of rape. But Linda Strudwick, prosecuting at Snaresbrook Crown Court, claimed the 19-year-old girl "made it plain to both defendants that she was not interested in them sexually" before they forced themselves on her.

The two men "were predatory and, whether they agreed this or not, they seemed to work together," Strudwick said.

After Davis had pushed the girl into a bedroom, Strudwick claimed, he "held the door shut, saying to Jack Tweed: 'Don't worry Jack, I've got the door, do what you've got to do'."
 
The anonymous victim, now aged 20, gave evidence from behind a screen. She said she was sober at the time but admitted she had dipped her finger in cocaine and rubbed it on to her gums.

She and her friends met Tweed and Davis at the Embassy Club on September 4. It was six months after the death from cervical cancer of the Big Brother contestant Goody, who had married Tweed days before she died.

After accompanying Tweed to his home, the victim told the court that he started kissing her. "That's when I nervously laughed and pushed him off," she said.

Then Davis grabbed her in a "kind of bear hug" and walked her backwards into the bedroom.

The court was told that Tweed raped her while her friends, trying to get into the room, were told to go away. He then raped her again, at the same time as Davis. She was "in a world of her own, trying to block out what was happening," said Strudwick.

Ronald Jaffa, representing Tweed, suggested to the victim that she was excited to be in the house of a celebrity, asking: "Were you looking for photographs of Jade Goody?" "No," she replied.

The trial continues. ·