A FOOTBALL CLUB chairman, Mr Owen Oyston, raped two teenage models in his country home after they were told he could help their careers, a court was told yesterday.
One of the girls, aged 17, claimed the 62 year old multimillionaire ignored her pleas to stop as he forced her to have sex. His second alleged victim, who was 16, was forced to have oral sex with him in the back of a car before being ordered to take part in a three in a bed sex session, according to the prosecution at Liverpool Crown Court.
Both girls, who had been led to believe the media magnate and Blackpool Football Club chairman could help their modelling careers, stayed silent about their ordeal for years fearing that nobody would believe their word against his, said Mrs Helen Grindrod QC, prosecuting.
Mr Oyston, of Claughton Hall, near Lancaster, pleads not guilty to raping the first of the young models between January 1988 and December 1989 and to raping and indecently assaulting the second girl between October and December 1991.
Both the alleged victims were models with the Manchester agency Model Team, run by a friend and business associate of Mr Oyston, Mr Peter Martin.
The first model, a tall, slim blonde, now aged 25, told the jury of eight women and tour men that Mr Oyston forced her into sex as she was being driven to his isolated house by Mr Martin in the middle of the night. She was later forced to have sex again in the house.
She said she had met Mr Oyston through his then personal secretary. Ms Jill Bridge, on visits to London, where she had rejected further advances from him, and on one occasion they all had dinner with Robert Maxwell.
The trial continues today.