Victim lay in shock as Evans raped him, court told

AN ALLEGED rape victim has denied he suggested going to bed with former House of Commons deputy speaker Nigel Evans and that they had consensual sex.

Nigel Evans MP: Denies all the charges. Picture: Getty

The man, aged in his early 20s, claims he woke up to find the 56-year-old MP on top of him, and he was then raped as he lay “in shock”.

The incident is said to have taken place after the complainant attended a dinner party last year at Evans’s home in his Ribble Valley constituency in Lancashire where he had agreed to stay overnight in a spare room.

Preston Crown Court heard the man say he had not invited or wanted any sexual contact but he said he got under the covers with Evans after he was “escorted” to his bedroom.

Peter Wright QC, defending, yesterday suggested to the complainant that he willingly went to Evans’s bedroom following a period of “intimacy” downstairs where they had been kissing.

The complainant replied: “That is pure fiction.” On Wednesday the complainant, who is giving evidence from behind a screen, admitted it was “a bad decision” to get into bed with Evans and it was “stupid” in hindsight.

Mr Wright asked him what he now thought about the incident.

The complainant replied: “I rationalised it that I have known this man for 18 months, we have only had one slight incident that was inappropriate.

“We were also friends and I had shared beds with friends and it never meant anything sexual.”

The barrister said: “But those friends were not a middle-aged man who was openly gay?”

“No,” replied the complainant

The witness recalled being “between tipsy and drunk” when he and Evans were later alone following the dinner party in Pendleton.

He described how Evans sat close to him on the sofa and put his arm around him as he topped their drinks up, the court heard.

He denied that at that stage he had received “the warning signs that this might be spiralling out of control” and said he did not say anything because he wanted to avoid an “awkward situation”.

“You could have stopped it there and then, couldn’t you?” asked Mr Wright.

The complainant said: “Other people could maybe. I couldn’t.”

Mr Wright said: “What I am going to suggest is that something else happened there before the bed situation. There had been some kissing that took place.”

The complainant said: “No, not at all.”

The barrister continued: “And that intimacy led to you both going upstairs to the bedroom.”

The complainant said: “That is pure fiction.”

Mr Wright said: “That is how you ended up in his bedroom. It was entirely your own choice, I suggest.”

“No,” the complainant replied.

Mr Wright said: “You did not say ‘this is not my bedroom’.”

The complainant said: “I wish I had.” The barrister said: “I suggest that in fact the reason you got into the bedroom was you said to him as you were going up the stairs ‘shall I follow you?’.

“No,” the complainant said.

Evans denies all nine charges and the trial continues.