An alleged rape victim who travelled across the world to give evidence in court has told a court she felt guilty for not reporting the alleged attack earlier.

Brian Witty, 42, of Twickenham Road, Teddington, is accused of raping the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at her university halls in October 1989.

Kingston Crown Court heard the woman, who was 19 years old at the time of the alleged attack, reported the rape last year after she read press reports of Witty’s conviction for other rapes.

When she took the stand on Tuesday, June 4, she told the court she had travelled from the other side of the world to give evidence.

Prosecutor Edmund Gritt asked her why she had not reported the alleged rape at the time and had decided to do so after telling her husband about it last year.

She said: “I was ashamed. I felt guilty that I hadn’t reported it in the first place. I felt guilty that other women had gone through a similar thing to myself.

“I may have been able to prevent some of that by reporting and I didn’t when I knew what he was like.”

The court heard Witty was a former acquaintance of the woman, who he tracked down at her university and violently attacked in her bedroom before he raped her.

The woman told the court Witty pushed her down stairs when they were friends and she would have to hide in the foot-well of her father’s car to leave her family home because he sat in his car outside waiting for her. She told the court she did not know how he found out where she was living.

Witty’s defence, Mark Milliken-Smith, claimed the pair had discussed going to the same university town and said that the alleged victim told Witty where she was staying.

Mr Milliken-Smith claimed there had never been any violence between the alleged victim and Witty, who he said visited her halls but did not rape her or have sex with her.

The alleged rape is one of three counts Witty denies. The trial, which started on Monday, June 3, is expected to last three weeks.