Alleged rape victim says she 'lives with it every day'

A woman who alleges she was raped as a teenage army cadet by a cadet leader has told Belfast Crown Court that she "lives with it every day".

Neil Beckett is standing trial for rape and other sex offences.

The 43-year-old former school welfare officer, with an address near Kilmore, Crossgar, County Down, is charged with 29 sex offences - he denies all the charges against him.

The alleged offences span a ten year period between 2013 and 2023 and involve 11 alleged victims.

The alleged rape is said to have taken place sometime between 2013 and 2015.

In court today, a defence barrister cross examined the woman about the alleged rape.

She told the court that she had been home from school due to being ill.

Neither of her parents were in the house at the time.

She said that Neil Beckett had arrived at her home with two coffees and had pushed past her and walked into the house and on into the living room.

She said she had asked him to leave as her parents were coming home soon.

She told the court that Neil Beckett had then leaned in and started to kiss her on the ears and neck and that she had tried to push him off.

He then, she said, put his hand under her shirt and down her trousers and went on to rape her.

When asked by a defence barrister how she had reacted, she said she had been "screaming, crying, and shouting".

She said she had tried to turn around so that she "could hit him and make it stop".

The woman was asked why she had not told her mother, who had come home shortly after the alleged rape.

She said: "Because it was the threat of violence to my family."

When asked what that threat entailed, she said Neil Beckett had said that "if I told anyone, something would happen to my family".

"I knew he worked with guns. If I ever came forward with anything, my family's safety was going to be compromised," she said.

During cross-examination by a defence barrister, the witness was asked on several occasions if she was making things up.

The witness rejected the suggestions and replied that she had "experienced every single thing" and that her memory was "scarily clear".

Mr Beckett spent time as an army cadet leader prior to taking up his role at Lagan College, where he worked as a school welfare officer.

In addition to the rape charge, Mr Beckett denies 26 sexual assault allegations, one count of sexual grooming, and one count of sexual communication with a child.

Nine of the complainants in the case were school pupils when the offences were said to have occurred.