Chess prodigy revealed rape by father to school friends, court told

Teenage chess prodigy Jessie Gilbert - who plunged to her death from a hotel - previously tried to throw herself from a clocktower telling friends her father had raped her, a court heard today.

Jessie, of Woldingham, Surrey, made the allegation to friends who pulled her down from the Croydon tower on New Year's Eve 2003, the jury heard.

She was 19 when she fell from the eighth floor of Hotel Labe in Pardubice, the Czech Republic, at an international chess tournament in July.

Ian Gilbert, 48, a Royal Bank of Scotland director, denies five counts of rape.

One of Miss Gilbert's friends, 19-year-old Holly Williams, said of the Croydon incident: "She went up the clock tower and was trying to throw herself off it.

"While we were waiting for the taxi she said, You don't understand — my dad raped me.'"

The hearing at Guildford Crown Court continues.