'Preacher of God' accused of raping three women (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Windhill, Shipley, man Brian Jackson on trial

8:20am Wednesday 4th January 2012 in Aire Valley By Jenny Loweth

A self-styled “preacher of the word of God” is on trial accused of a string of rapes, sexual abuse and beatings against five women and a man over three decades.

Brian Jackson is said to have throttled a former girlfriend with a phone flex, struck her on the head with a pool cue and stabbed her in the leg for giving her sister more potatoes than him.

She told the jury at Bradford Crown Court she hated him so much she cleaned the toilet bowl with his toothbrush, served dog food in his meat and potato pie and spat in his food.

Jackson, 50, of Hall Lane, Windhill, Shipley, denies five charges of rape against three of the women, wounding with intent, two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, attempted rape and indecently assaulting a man and a woman.

Prosecutor Mark McKone told the court yesterday he called one woman fat and ugly, raped her and beat her.

He said she wore long-sleeved tops and trousers to cover the bruising.

The woman, who knew Jackson in the 1970s, accuses him of making her pregnant by raping her and hitting her with cupboard drawers.

She told the court she began a relationship with him when she was a teenager and had to move home to avoid him when he turned violent.

“Most of the time I hated him,” she said.

She said she last spoke to Jackson more than 20 years ago when he told her he had found God.

Mr McKone said a second woman alleges Jackson was controlling, violent and hit her before demanding sex.

She told the police he ripped off her clothes and she dared not say “no”.

He is alleged to have raped a third woman after grabbing her around the throat when their relationship ended.

A fourth woman told the police Jackson bit her on the lip in a nightclub and pushed her through a closed door, knocking it off its hinges.

Jackson is also charged with sexually assaulting a woman patient at Bradford’s Lynfield Mount Hospital more than ten years ago.

Mr McKone said she was molested after going for a walk with Jackson and he threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

The alleged sixth victim is a man Jackson is said to have become infatuated with, reciting prayers in his presence and saying he was to be his disciple.

Jackson is accused of grabbing him by the neck in a Bradford bedsit, slamming him against a wall and sexually assaulting and attempting to rape him.

Mr McKone said he seized the man by the hair, forced him to commit a sex act and told him: “You’re mine now.”

Jackson is alleged to have said: “God made me do it.”

The jury was told Jackson admitted to the police giving two of the women “a few slaps”.

He told officers he was “a preacher of the word of God”.

The trial continues.