A 16-YEAR-OLD who was dragged into bushes and choked during a random sex attack "thought she was dead", a court heard. 

Saulius Zilinskas, 41, of Great Oxcroft, Laindon, is accused of carrying out two attempted rapes and a sexual assault in Laindon on February 21, 2015.

Basildon Crown Court heard his alleged teenaged victim was waiting at a bus stop alone when she was approached by a man who said: “Are you real? I saw you from over there and thought wow.”

In a harrowing video interview played to the court, she told how her attacker grabbed her by the throat and “slammed” her into the bus stop.

She said: “I remember two cars passing. I was trying to shout but he was choking me. He dragged me behind the gate, I knew he was trying to find a bush. I was trying to say no but I couldn’t breathe. It was getting all blurry.”

The court heard the girl was then pushed against a fence before she persuaded the man to loosen his grip, at which point she screamed. He then pushed her to the floor where she lashed out with her feet.

She said: “I think he had both his hands on my throat, he just wasn’t letting go. He just kept telling me to shut up.

“I started getting light-headed. I was kicking and trying to scream, I thought he was going to kill me.

"I thought I was dead and I just stopped and laid there.”

Eventually, two youngsters saw what was going on and threatened to call police. The attacker ran away. The girl was left with bruising and finger marks around her throat and neck.

Zilinskas is accused of attacking a 23-year-old woman just 20 minutes earlier and also carrying out a sexual assault inside the Co- Op store in Laindon High Road earlier that day.

The 23-year-old told the court how she was attacked as she walked home from the Co-Op at about 8pm, leaving her “devastated”.

The court heard Zilinskas punched the woman in the stomach twice, causing her to double up. He then grabbed her hair and held onto it for about ten minutes as she continued to struggle.

She later told police the incident left her with bruising to her stomach and a “big chunk of hair” missing.

Another woman told the court how she felt “threatened” in the Co-op after feeling a “big grope” as Zilinskas stood behind her.

The jury was told on the opening day of the trial how Zilinskas was previously convicted of a brutal rape in his home country 14 years ago.

He denies raping a woman three times in East London on January 14, 2005, and two counts of attempted rape, three counts of sexual assault, two counts of false imprisonment and two counts actual bodily harm, relating to the Laindon attacks.