Man says he refused woman’s sex offers

A MAN accused of raping an intellectually disabled woman told police she wanted to have sex with him, but he refused.

John William Dighton, 55, is on trial in Townsville District Court for four counts of rape.

Dighton is accusing of raping the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on January 31, 2015.

In court yesterday, jurors were played an audio recording from a police search of Dighton’s Yabulu home.

During the recording Dighton could be heard to tell police he was in shock.

“This is making me shake,” he said.

“I’m absolutely gutted, just distraught and devastated.”

Dighton told police multiple times during the recording that he had “nothing to hide” and that he had never had penetrative sex with the woman.

“She wanted to have sex with me all the time but I kept saying no,” he said.

Dighton said he did have oral sex with the woman on two occasions but that it was consensual.

“She wanted to experiment,” he said.

Dighton said on the recording the woman’s father threatened him with going to the police.

“Her dad told me to leave her alone, so I left her alone,” he said.

In his closing argument crown prosecutor Nathan Crane described Dighton as “the man who spent some time grooming her for activities of this type”.

Mr Crane said if jurors found Dighton not guilty of rape, they could then consider an alternate verdict of carnal knowledge or indecent treatment on a person with an impairment of the mind.

Defence barrister Franklin Richards asked jurors to put aside “preconceived ideas” about disabled people and sexual behaviour.

The trial continues.