A wicked couple laughed as they raped a girl who refused to join them for a ‘threesome’ and forced her to perform sex acts on both of them.
Anthony Preston, 22, and fiancée Nicole Rickatson, 27, took turns in holding their victim down as she pleaded for mercy.
The young woman was pounced on and subjected to the ‘horrific sexual attack’ when she visited the couple at their home in Hull, East Yorkshire 17 days before Christmas 2023.
Hull Crown Court heard Rickatson grinned as the pair ‘sexually abused’ the terrified woman and ‘encouraged and assisted each other’ in sexual acts.
Prosecutor Richard Butters continued: ‘They did what they wanted. They helped themselves to her. They treated her, in effect, like a rag doll, sexually abusing her.’
The court heard the woman thought the couple were joking when they told her: ‘Let’s have a threesome’.
Preston snapped when he asked the woman to stay over in the bedroom and she said ‘no’. He grabbed her, pulled her hair then forced her down on the bed despite her pleas of ‘Stop’ and ‘No, please don’t.’
The jury heard she was forced to commit sexual acts on both Preston and Rickatson while ‘the female defendant was just smiling in the bedroom’.
Nicole Rickatson (pictured), 27, smiled as she and he partner raped a girl who refused to join them for a ‘threesome’
Anthony Preston (pictured), 22, and his fiance Rickatson took turns in holding their victim down as she pleaded for mercy.
Preston ordered her to keep still and held his hand over their victim’s mouth when she had a panic attack.
Mr Butters said: ‘Rickatson was present at the time. They just didn’t seem to care.
‘Throughout this abuse, she couldn’t move because one or other of them was holding her down,’ said Mr Butters.
‘All the time, Rickatson was in the bedroom encouraging this abuse.
‘She remembered Preston saying to her that she was a “good girl”. ‘Preston and Rickatson, were both laughing and that’s a theme throughout this incident.
‘Both defendants told her that they were having fun and she remembers that, when she was being raped by Preston, Rickatson was at her side smiling.’
The young woman later got dressed and ran downstairs before phoning a male friend and calling police. The woman scratch marks all the way down her back. ‘She felt numb,’ said Mr Butters.
When police went round to the couple’s home, they saw that there was blood on the bed.
When they returned the next day the bedding had been removed but was later recovered by police.
Preston and Rickatson both claimed that the sex was consensual and her counsel suggested they were ‘inviting someone into their sexual world’.
But Mr Butters told the jury: ‘These two want you to believe that they had a thoroughly enjoyable threesome. They have abused her terribly.
‘She felt as though she was being used as a toy, being used for their own sexual exploits and desires.
The couple, of Allendale, Hull were convicted of one offence of rape and have been remanded in custody for sentencing on March 17 (pictured: Hull Crown Court)
The couple, of Allendale, Hull, denied three offences of rape on December 8 2023, three of assault by penetration and one of perverting the course of justice.
They were each convicted of one offence of rape. Preston was convicted of perverting the course of justice. Both were remanded in custody for sentencing on March 17.
Leading the investigation was Detective Constable Thomas Birkenhead from Humberside Police, who said the victim had visited the couple at their home.
He said: ‘Both Rickatson and Preston took advantage of her trust, seeing this as an opportunity to pin her down, assault, and rape her all for their own sexual gratification.
‘In an attempt to cover up their sexual deviancy, Preston then proceeded to remove evidence from the bedroom which was later recovered by officers.
‘They then refused to admit their crimes and made the woman relive the ordeal all over again by subjecting her to a trial.’