A woman has told a court she “froze” when an Ipswich man accused of attempted rape and blackmail allegedly assaulted her.   

Shahin Rahman, 49, of St Helen’s Street, is on trial at Ipswich Crown Court having denied three offences of attempted rape, two offences of sexual assault, putting a person in fear of violence by harassment and blackmail by making an unwarranted demand for sexual contact from the alleged victim.

The offences are alleged to have been committed between July last year and March this year, the court was told.

The prosecution case, which opened at the court on Wednesday, is that the defendant, 49, groomed the woman and then offences of sexual touching escalated into attempted rape, while he monitored all of her communications.

Rahman told the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, if she did not comply with his sexual demands then she would owe him “vast” amounts of money, the court heard.

The court heard he told her before he tried to rape her: “You’ve got nowhere else to go. You really should do what I want”.

It was said Rahman would chase the woman around her room until he could catch her and then sexually assaulted her.

The defendant would also take the woman’s phone and go through all her WhatsApp messages.

When the alleged victim texted another man she was friends with, Rahman is said to have become “livid”.

He is alleged to have said he had a film of her having sexual contact with the man and he threatened to show this video to everyone, but she denied ever having any sexual relationship with the man.

“He tied up my life within a confined area”, she said.

Prosecutor Kate Davey told the jury that when interviewed by police Mr Rahman said he had no sexual contact of any type with her at all. 

But she added the jury should note that he may have changed his case since then to say there was consensual sexual contact. 

The alleged victim will be cross-examined on Thursday as the trial continues.