Dealer ‘drugged women and sexually assaulted them at home’

A MAN drugged a series of women and locked them in his house before subjecting them to a terrifying catalogue of sexual assaults, a court heard yesterday.

Geoffrey Holyoake, aged 53, of Frome, Somerset, was a “low level drug dealer” who supplied cannabis and amphetamines, mainly to people he met in a Wiltshire pub, a jury at Bristol Crown Court heard.

Through his trade he picked out “vulnerable” women to undergo outlandish sexual encounters.

The court heard how Holyoake drugged three different women.

He would take them back to his home, which had padlocks reinforced with superglue, and use their bodies as they slipped in and out of consciousness.

The court heard how one of the alleged victims woke up at one point dressed in a schoolgirl’s uniform and at another in a room which resembled a doctor’s surgery.

Holyoake denies three counts of false imprisonment, three counts of administering a noxious substance, five counts of indecent assault, one count of rape and two counts of attempted rape against three different women between June 2002 and July 2003.

He also denies two counts of possession with intent to supply cannabis and amphetamines.

The court heard how unemployed Holyoake lived in an old caretaker’s house next to a cemetery.

Ian Dixey, prosecuting, told the jury that he owned a property and drove a sports car and “he gave the appearance of somebody sophisticated, older than the three women concerned, and as having some means.”

Each woman claimed that during their ordeals they felt “incapacitated in a way they had never experienced before” from taking drugs.

The trial, due to last between 10 and 15 days, was adjourned until tomorrow.