Welcome to the world of modern students, jury in rape trial is told
Out every night, drinking to excess, picking up the opposite sex...
THE trial of a man accused of raping an undergraduate reveals the excesses of ‘the world of modern students’, a court heard yesterday.
It was also a cautionary warning about the dangers of a one-night stand, a jury was told.
Graduate Lewis Tappenden, 24, took up the drunken 18-year- old’s invitation to come back to her university residence for casual sex, York Crown Court heard.
But despite willingly getting into bed naked with the stranger, the woman allegedly changed her mind and told police the next day that she was raped. Prosecutor Tom Storey told the jury: ‘Welcome to the world of modern students – going out every night, drinking to excess, picking up members of the opposite sex, with the intention of some sexual activity taking place.’ In his final address to the jury, he told jurors not to pass judgment on morals. Mr Storey said Tappenden, who had recently graduated from the same university attended by the first-year student he is accused of attacking, turned violent when she said ‘no.’
‘ He knew why he was there, he knew what he wanted and he carried on regardless,’ said Mr Storey.
Earlier the court heard how the teenager had been drinking and told friends she wanted to ‘pull’ that night. She was seen kissing Tappenden less than a minute after they began dancing together in a club in York. She allegedly said she wanted to have sex with him and although Tappenden had a girlfriend he accepted the invitation.
CCTV showed the York St John University student leading Tappenden out of the club. The two were holding hands and kissing on the walk to her halls of residence, the court heard.
Emma Rance, defending, said: ‘She takes his hand and leads him out of the lift by his hand.’ He was a stranger to her and she did not know his name, the court heard. Tappenden said they had consensual sex before he got up to be sick in the bathroom. When he came out she was gone.
The teenager went to wake flatmates and he ended up being ejected from the student accommodation by security.
She was said to be concerned about love bites she had as her father was picking her up that day and reported the incident as a rape at lunchtime.
Miss Rance told the jury: ‘This case is about a warning to every man who goes back to a woman’s room for a one-night stand, and the repercussions when that woman later regrets it.’
The court heard the woman and her friends were ‘freshers’ enjoying the first weeks of university life had been out drinking every night of that week. Days after the alleged rape in October 2015 she dropped out of university.
Tappenden of Huntington, Cambridgeshire, denies rape. The case continues.
‘Dangers of a one-night stand’