RAPE TRIAL: A PAINTER and decorator accused of tying a 74-year-old woman to a chair and repeatedly raping her has denied he was responsible for the attack.

Anthony Joyce, 49, took the stand at Bristol Crown Court this week and said he was nowhere near the Westbury area, where the attack took place.

The jury heard that a man posing as a telephone engineer visited the woman's home and tied her to an upturned armchair before raping her.

A 93-year-old woman was also tied up and was left in an upstairs room while the attack took place.

Joyce told the court he was working at Donhead Hall in Donhead St Andrew, near Tisbury, at the time of the attack.

When asked if he committed the crimes he replied, "absolutely not."

On Thursday the jury heard statements from the two women, who said they had been left shocked and traumatised by the attack.

The older woman said: "The whole incident is a complete nightmare. I cannot say how I feel about what has happened."

Defence counsel, David Bate QC, urged the jury not to let the nature of the crime cloud their judgement.

He said: "I haven't the slightest doubt that as you have listened to the evidence in this case you will have been revolted by it.

"There is a strong and understandable desire to ensure that the person responsible is convicted and punished.

"The defence case is that it is simply not Anthony Joyce who committed this crime."

The jury heard that the man who called at the women's home was dressed as a workman, wearing a blue hard hat and carrying a toolbox.

Police found the tip of a latex glove at the scene which was sent for DNA testing and led them to Joyce.

Mr Bate said there was no dispute that Joyce, as a painter and decorator, had access to latex gloves and hard hats.

He said: "When you consider this evidence it could implicate hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people."

Several witnesses reported seeing a man in a white Ford Sierra car in the area at that time, but the court heard that neither they nor the 74-year-old victim were able to pick out Joyce at an identity parade two years later.

Joyce told the court he was working alongside another painter and decorator, Andy Wykes, at Donhead Hall on the day in question.

Mr Wykes, who took the stand on Wednesday, said Joyce had not left, but under cross-examination admitted it was very difficult to remember the events of one day, nearly three years ago.

Joyce, of Neville Close, Salisbury, denies two charges of rape on June 4, 1999, two of false imprisonment and one of burglary.