A woman has told how she was sexually assaulted by a friend in her own home after she rejected his advances.
Helen, 42, had known Steve Price, 49, for many years. The pair had both grown up together in the tight community of Pontardawe in Wales.
At the time of the attack, he was a regular in the pub that Helen worked in. Three days beforehand, he repeatedly asked her to go on a date with him – to which she said no.
Speaking to our sister title, Wales Online, Helen said: “I didn’t see him as more than a friend. Then, on the day it happened, Steve tried calling me, which I ignored, but half an hour later he rang again. He told me he’d been at a work site all day and the shower in his house was broken. He said, ‘Please, I’m filthy, can I use your shower?'”
Although reluctant, Helen agreed. She said: “I didn’t think I’d be in danger. I was trying to be a good Samaritan.”
Price turned up to Helen’s home wearing his work clothes, however, Helen could see something stuffed inside his fleece. When she asked what it was, he replied: “My pyjamas.”
View 2 ImagesSteve Price(Image: South Wales Police)
Helen warned him he would not be staying over, but he claimed he had no intention of doing so, reassuring her: “I’m not going to put my dirty work clothes back on, am I?” After Price had a shower he came out of the bathroom, wearing the pyjamas, and tried to strike up a conversation with Helen.
She realised his speech was slurred, which she had not noticed when he first arrived.
She said: “I said ‘off you go’ because I had to get up early in the morning, but he asked to stay for five minutes so he could see my cat, because I’d recently got a new kitten. So he stayed for another five minutes, and when I asked him again to leave, he said: ‘Five more minutes.'”
Helen told him she was going to have a bath and that she expected him to leave as soon as she was finished. But while she was in the bath, he tried the handle of the bathroom door, which she was glad she had locked.
She continued: “I got dressed in the bathroom and when I came out, Steve was still on my sofa and clearly intoxicated. He attempted to stand up but stumbled and fell to his knees by the sofa. As he landed, he pushed his hand up against my private area. I asked him: ‘What did you do, neck a bottle of vodka?’ He proceeded to tell me he had been sat in his house all day drinking. He admitted he hadn’t been to work at all.
“Then he put his hand up my pyjama top and grabbed hold of my breast. I moved him away and he was saying, ‘Please just kiss me, I really like you.’ By this point I was going out of my mind thinking: ‘What the hell am I going to do?’ I was almost killed by a drunk driver 20 years ago, so I didn’t want anyone else to be at risk from Steve driving home drunk in his big pickup truck.
“I told him he could stay the night because I didn’t want anyone to be injured on the road, but I’d be on the sofa and he could go upstairs to bed. I stayed downstairs for an hour and I could hear him snoring upstairs. I then made the worst decision of my life, thinking he wasn’t going to wake up so I could go to bed and get some sleep. I climbed into the bed and he turned over, putting his hand straight back up my pyjama top.”
She ordered Price to remove his hand, to which he replied: “It’s there now, it might as well just stay there.”
Helen said: “That’s the point where I became petrified. I just lay there and thought, ‘I am never going to fight this man off.’ I just lay there frozen. A few minutes later he put his hand down my pyjama bottoms and luckily I was able to get away from him. I ran into another room and put things against the door to barricade him out. He was calling out to me but he didn’t get out of bed.”
Helen called Price’s cousin, who turned up and took him away from the property. The following day Helen messaged Price that he would never set foot over her doorstep again.
Helen said: “He replied that he was really embarrassed and sorry. He said his head was messed up over another woman.”
That woman turned out to be Price’s former partner, whom he had tormented since their breakup the previous year, refusing to accept the relationship had ended and making threats to her new boyfriend. Both she and Helen made criminal complaints against Price, who was charged with harassing and stalking his ex as well as sexually assaulting Helen.
Initially Price denied the charges but he pleaded guilty to them all on the day his trial was due to begin at Swansea Crown Court. There had also been an incident, shortly after the attack, when Price entered the pub where Helen worked and made sexual innuendos towards her.
Price, of Lon Tan yr Allt, Alltwen, had eight previous offences on his record, including common assault and criminal damage. His sentencing at Swansea Crown Court heard his campaign of harassment had involved repeatedly driving slowly past his ex’s house, turning up at her new partner’s workplace, and asking him: “How would your father feel if you had a cracked skull?”
Price’s barrister Hywel Davies told the court his client “recognises his failings in dealing with the breakdown of the relationship”. Judge Geraint Walters imposed 16 months in prison.
Speaking of his sentence, Helen said: “I haven’t dated anyone since. I haven’t invited people to my house or felt comfortable in my local area. My friends have noticed I’m more fearful when I’m out and about, and I won’t drink alcohol if I’m out in Pontardawe because I don’t want to make myself more vulnerable. It’s made me question a lot of things in my life.
“I want people to speak up and to know it’s not okay for a person to touch you if you don’t consent, and how easy it is to fall victim to someone you know.”
If something sexual happened to you without your consent – or you’re not sure – you can talk to the 24/7 Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line by calling 0808 500 2222.
Article continues below
Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google’s preferred sources. Click HERE.