THE trial of a Leftwich shopkeeper accused of raping, falsely imprisoning, and threatening to kill a woman has begun at Chester Crown Court.

Valutham Jeganathan, of Clifton Road, faces six counts of rape, one of unlawful wounding, two of assault, and two of threatening to kill a woman.  

On the first day of his trial on Monday, August 6, prosecutor John Philpotts told the jury the Sri Lankan’s sexual abuse ‘happened on many occasions, and took many forms’, and was at it worst ‘when he was drunk, which was often’.

He added when the 48-year-old ‘wanted to use his victim for sex’, he would phone her at work and force her to leave in the middle of a shift.

Mr Philpotts said he tried to make her watch porn to ‘get her interested in the kinds of sex acts he wanted her to perform’.

She told police she was scared to refuse Jeganathan sex in case he turned violent, which he had on several occasions.

She alleges he once hit her over the head with a drawer from a bedside cabinet, and sometimes threatened to kill her, which she believed him fully capable of.

He made it clear he wasn’t afraid of going to prison, she alleges.

She even took to hiding her kitchen knives in her garden if she believed he was likely to show up.

The alleged abuse went on for years, Mr Philpott told the court, but the victim had no relatives or friends she could turn to for help.

She also says for a long time, she didn’t know his behaviour towards her was illegal under law.

When she did eventually suggest she would call the police, she says he threatened to kill her before locking her in her home and refused to let her out. 

When Jeganathan was arrested and interviewed, he ‘flatly and emphatically’ denied all allegations, said Mr Philpotts.

He later pleaded not guilty to all the offences at Cheshire Magistrates' Court on August 29, 2023, and was released on conditional bail. 

Mr Philpotts concluded his opening statement by reminding the jury ‘submission through fear of violence is not consent’.

The trial, presided over by His Honour Judge Simon Berkson, is expected to last five days.