Man accused of a rape that his lawyer victim 'was too drunk to remember'
Man accused of a rape that his lawyer victim 'was too drunk to remember' | Mail Online
By Vanessa Allen
A man has gone on trial accused of raping a lawyer who claims she was too drunk to have agreed to sex.
The alleged victim said she found Peter Bacon lying naked next to her in bed one morning with no memory of what had gone before.
She immediately accused the chef of taking advantage of her, shouting: 'It's because of b******s like you that the law has been changed.'
Prosecutor Kerry Malin said the woman was referring to a 2007 legal ruling that someone who is drunk may not be capable of giving consent.
'She told him she was a lawyer and knew it was rape if she was unable to say yes. She had no capacity to say yes,' added Miss Malin.
The woman was still twice the drink-drive limit later that day when she had a medical examination. Tests proved the pair did have sex.
Bacon, 26, voluntarily went to a police station and told them what the lawyer had said when he woke up in her bed.
He said he wanted to find out what his legal position was but was arrested and later charged.
The lawyer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been drinking heavily on the night of the alleged attack, Winchester Crown Court was told.
She shared a meal and four bottles of wine with her former flatmate, who then invited Bacon over to the house for a few drinks. By that stage the lawyer said she was so drunk that she cannot remember the chef arriving or her former flatmate leaving half an hour later.
But the court heard the woman, who is in her 30s, then shared another two bottles of wine with Bacon before going to bed.
She woke the next morning to find him lying naked behind her with her underwear, jumper and trousers lying jumbled in a pile next to the bed.
She said: 'I came to and was aware of somebody lying next to me. I was lying on my side and someone was behind me with their hand on my left breast.
'I was terribly shocked and I was hyperventilating. I thought it was possible that I had had sex but did not know until I went for a medical examination.
'I was too drunk to consent to anything. I swore at him and said "It's because of b******s like you that the law has been changed". He did not say anything.
'I ran downstairs and went into the kitchen, which was in a mess with bottles of wine lined up on a table. When I returned to the bedroom he was getting dressed very hastily and ran out of the front door, leaving his socks behind.'
The woman contacted a friend and said she believed she had been raped the night before.
She attended the medical examination later that morning.
Judith Khan, defending, claimed that the woman had consented at every stage of sexual activity during the alleged assault on February 17 last year.
During cross-examination, she told the woman: 'You got into the bed first and Mr Bacon got in after you. You helped him to remove your clothing.'
She said that she had performed a sex act on him and then had sex.
'Throughout, you were participating in all areas of sexual activity. At no stage were you unwilling to participate.
'The next morning you asked him if you had had sex and he said yes.
'You may have regretted what happened the night before but you had fully participated and consented with what went on between you.'
The alleged victim repeated that she was too drunk to have consented to anything. Miss Malin told the court the woman was aware the law surrounding rape, alcohol and consent had changed because of her legal experience.
She said: 'The victim's reaction when she woke up was one of horror. She shouted at Bacon and became hysterical.'
She said the woman told the chef she knew about the new law on rape and told him in no uncertain terms to leave.
Bacon, of Canterbury in Kent, denies rape. The trial continues.
- Judges were told in late 2007 that a woman may not be capable of giving consent if she is drunk, even if she is still conscious.
Earlier that year, three Appeal Court judges quashed the conviction of 25-year-old software engineer Benjamin Bree who was jailed for five years the previous December after a drunken evening with a 19-year-old student.
The girl told the jury that she did not want to have sex, but Mr Bree told the court she had given her consent. One of the judges said sex amounts to rape if the woman is incapable of giving consent.
But he added: 'Where the complainant has voluntarily consumed even substantial quantities of alcohol, but nevertheless remains capable of choosing whether or not to have intercourse, and in drink agrees to do so, this would not be rape.'
