London riots: Laura Johnson ‘raped by 2 men just weeks before alleged crime spree’

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London riots: Laura Johnson ‘raped by 2 men just weeks before alleged crime spree’

March 26th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Laura Johnson, 20, said she has self-harmed since she was 14 and had mental health treatment
Miss Johnson claims she was forced to drive car for four looters last summer

By
Rebecca Evans

PUBLISHED:

07:53 EST, 26 March 2012

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UPDATED:

16:48 EST, 26 March 2012

Suicidal: Laura Johnson, 20, leaving court today where she told jurors she has self-harmed since 14 and tried to kill herself six times

The millionaire’s daughter accused of taking part in a looting rampage during last summer’s riots yesterday blamed her descent into lawlessness on a double rape.

Laura Johnson, 20, told a court she was depressed after her ordeal and had repeatedly tried to take her own life.

This vulnerability led her to trust a convicted robber and drug dealer who later forced her to drive a getaway car during the looting spree, she said.

But the prosecution at Inner London Crown Court asked her if the rape allegation, which went unreported, was something she had made up to help her defence. The former grammar school pupil denied this.

She said Emmanuel Okubote, who goes by the street names Sylar or T-Man, terrified her into chauffeuring him and his friends with talk of guns and knives.

She also claims he grabbed her by the throat and showed her a video of a kidnap victim being tortured with bleach.

Giving evidence yesterday, Johnson wept as she told how she had been self-harming since the age of 14 and had made six suicide attempts after her boyfriend ended their relationship last year.

She had also spent time as an in-patient at a psychiatric hospital. The final devastating blow, she said, was when she was raped by two men on July 14.

Since the alleged attack, the University of Exeter student said T-Man had become a ‘pillar of strength’, although she denied they had a sexual relationship.

She said: ‘I was growing more affectionate towards him. I fancied him a little bit. He was very kind and very supportive. I basically broke down in front of him and the stuff in my past came out.

‘I told him about being suicidal, my ex-boyfriend and being raped. He listened to all that, which suggests an affection.

‘He encouraged me to go back to university, go to the library and do essays. He was trying to be a positive influence.’

Johnson said she had been introduced to T-Man, 20, through Charlie Fryett, a friend she met in a psychiatric hospital.

On
the day of the riots, she said her mental state was ‘very bad’ and in
the weeks before she had regularly wanted to kill herself by ‘taking as
many tablets as I could find…so I would not wake up in the morning’.

Family home: Johnson has been bailed to her parents' large, detached house in Orpington

Family home: Johnson has been bailed to her parents’ large, detached house in Orpington

She said: ‘I was raped by two males. I didn’t talk to anyone at first.

‘My mental health was worse than ever before. I hated life and myself so much.’

Sandy Canavan, prosecuting, asked Johnson if the rape allegation was something she had ‘created to add substance to her defence’.

Frenzy: Johnson's trial heard how hundreds of rioters scurried 'like wild rats' around Stone Lake Retail Park in Charlton (above)

Frenzy: Johnson’s trial heard how hundreds of rioters scurried ‘like wild rats’ around Stone Lake Retail Park in Charlton (above)

Johnson said that she had gone to meet
T-Man, who she knew had been in prison, to drop off a phone charger in
Catford, South-East London, at 6.30pm on August 8 – the worst night of
the riots – but was taken by surprise when three other men wearing
balaclavas and hoodies jumped into the back of her Smart car.

Because they were ‘not the sort of people you say no to’, she then drove her passengers for eight hours as they robbed other looters and pillaged televisions, cigarettes and alcohol from branches of Currys, Comet and a BP petrol station. She added: ‘The first thing T-Man said to me was “drive”. It was short, sharp, abrupt.

‘He had never spoken to me like that before. I felt scared, shocked. They had a knife. I feared being stabbed.’

Johnson says looters threatened her and made her drive them around as they robbed people and shops during the summer riots

The prosecution says she was a willing participant. Johnson said she felt relieved when police finally arrested her.

Johnson, of Orpington, Kent, denies three counts of burglary and three alternative charges of handling stolen goods. Her co-defendant, a 17-year-old from Lewisham who cannot be named for legal reasons, has admitted burgling a petrol station but denies the other charges.

A third man, 18-year-old Alexander Elliott-Joahill has pleaded guilty to burglary and handling stolen goods. The case continues.