A WOMAN described how she thought she was going to die when she was allegedly abducted and violently raped by a man just weeks before he raped and killed a schoolgirl 46 years ago.

Jurors heard how Peter Pickering, now 80, has been held under a hospital order ever since he admitted the manslaughter by diminished responsibility of 14-year-old Shirley Boldy in 1972.

Shirley was bundled into a van by Pickering and driven to a secluded area where she was raped, strangled and then stabbed to death.

Pickering, who was arrested at Thornford Park Hospital in Thatcham, has gone on trial accused of abducting, handcuffing and raping an 18-year-old woman about three or four weeks before the attack on Shirley.

Speaking from behind a screen the woman, who is now in her 60s, told the jury how Pickering burned her breasts with a cigarette after raping her and then told her: "I suppose I'm going to have to kill you now."

The woman said she was handcuffed and violently attacked in the back of the van by the man, who said he was called Peter.

She told the jury her trauma continued after the rape.

"He burned me on my breasts," she said.

"It seemed like forever. About a dozen times. It was very, very painful.

"I was stunned into silence. I just thought I was going to die."

She said: "When he'd finished he said 'I suppose I'm going to have to kill you now'.

Pickering, who appeared by video-link from Swindon Crown Court, denies rape and false imprisonment.

Michelle Colborne QC told the jury: "The reason you are trying this case now is that it didn't come to light at the time and in fact wasn't actually detected until

more recently when the police were looking through some medical notes of the defendant, who has been the subject of a hospital order since December 7 1972."

Ms Colborne said that when police contacted the woman in December 2016, she said to the officer: "Is it about Peter?".

"That was the first time since 1972 she had uttered his name," the prosecutor said.

Ms Colborne said that Pickering claims the woman consented to sex.

She said: "This defendant was a predator whose means of operating was to use force to get what he wanted."

Ms Colborne said documents, letters and diaries written by Pickering support the prosecution case.

She told the jury that an entry written in October 1970 said: "Well we'll... wait till 1972 gets here. Sex is predominant in my mind - eclipsing all else.

"Maybe I will be a sex maniac proper. Rape, torture, kill. It's fascinating at least, more so young girls - virgin convent type or a nun maybe."

Due to this, Pickering, who sat in the dock in Swindon wearing a beige outdoor coat, was caught and led police to her body.

The trial, at Leeds Crown Court, continues.