Woman said she was left ‘terrified’ by ex teeth-whitening salon boss

A woman who claimed a man sexually assaulted her in a Mutley Plain teeth-whitening salon in December 2022 said he “looked like he was possessed”.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of a number giving evidence against 31-year-old Ricky Stubberfield who had previously been the co-manager of the Essex Smiles salon on Mutley Plain at the time of some of the alleged incidents. The salon is now under new management and Stubberfield is no long affiliated with the firm.

Stubberfield, who denies all the charges, was arrested on June 9 last year following inquiries by police after a number of complaints from women. He was initially charged with offences relating to three different woman and appeared at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court.

However, by the time he later appeared at Plymouth Crown Court the number of complainants and charges had risen and the court has heard from complainants who said they only came forwards to make statements to police about alleged offences after reading the initial court report in PlymouthLive.

Prosecutor Mary McCarthy had told the jury that Stubberfield now faces 26 charges, relating to eight females, including one girl who was aged just 16 at the time of the alleged offences against her.

Stubberfield faces nine counts of rape relating to one woman and one girl aged under 16, ten counts of sexual assault against five women, including one who was just 16 at the time. He also faces five counts of assault by penetration on three women, one count of indecent exposure and one count of making indecent images of a child.

The offences cover the period between December 23, 2013 when Stubberfield was aged around 20, through to June 4, 2024.

After watching the video interview with one of the complainants who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Stubberfield in Decmeber 2022, the young woman took to the witness box to answer questions from prosecutor Mary McCarthy and junior defence counsel David Rhodes.

The remaining jury of 10 men and one woman heard how she had a following on social media and Stubberfield had reached out to her to offer her a free teeth-whitening session in exchange for her promoting his business. The jury were previously told there were a number of exchanges between Stubberfield and the woman via messages which were full of sexual innuendo ahead of the session.

The jury heard from the woman who claimed that the 31-year-old walked into a preparation room and “scooped me up from the chair”.

She said Stubberfield did so easily and began kissing her neck before pushing her against a wall and sexually assaulting her. She had come forward to police after she read the magistrates’ court report on PlymouthLive which was published on June 11, 2024. She had told police in her statement that her “body just froze” and she feared she was going to be raped.

She told the police “He had this look in his eyes. The whole atmosphere changed in the room. It was terrifying. It almost looked like he was possessed. I instantly felt unsafe. I felt trapped.”

She said Stubberfield grabbed her and put her onto his lap so and then put his hands down her trousers and sexually assaulted her.

She told the court: “My whole body tensed up. It was just painful. He’d already showed that he was much stronger than me and much bigger than me. He was going to get what he wanted to get. I couldn’t tell you how I got out to be honest. I didn’t cry. It was quite surreal. I was babbling. I don’t know what made him stop.”

The woman told police she saw him a few weeks later in a local restaurant and he waved and smiled at her, but she only smiled back. Asked why she said: “I still felt so scared of him. I felt like I had to reply to that. He is just a terrifying person.”

She insisted she told him “no” during the alleged sexual assault “more than 20 times”.

In reply to cross examination by defence junior barrister Mr Rhodes, the young woman said she had been a customer at the Essex Smiles “four or five times” prior to the alleged incident.

She denied having any conversations about the alleged assault with another complainant but said she did know of them, although she knew them by a different name and did not realise it was the same woman police had told her was another complainant.

She strenuously denied she had kissed Stubberfield while in the salon and denied she had shown him a photo of lingerie she was going to buy, merely sending him a online link to a website instead.

She also very strongly denied that she had sent him a photo of her private intimate areas. When accused of making a false allegation by Mr Rhodes, she replied firmly “absolutely not”.

The jury had previously heard that after leaving the salon she attended a pre-planned counselling session where she told a counsellor about the incident. They urged her to attend a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) which she did.

She told the SARC staff about the incident and DNA swabs were taken. She decided not to report the incident to police and the DNA swabs were kept on record at the SARC.

Around 18 months later, after she read the news article on PlymouthLive about Stubberfield’s arrest and court appearance, she contacted police and the DNA swabs were examined by investigators.

They revealed that Stubberfield’s DNA had been on her neck where he had kissed her.

He denies all the charges.

The trial continues.