British barrister’s son guilty of raping student in her sleep
THE son of a British QC has been found guilty of raping a student as she slept at a luxury Manhattan apartment.
George Fay, 23, bowed his head and cried as the jury returned their verdict. He now faces up to 25 years in prison.
His father Michael, who sits as a deputy high court judge in the Caribbean, sat stony faced in the public gallery as did his mother Sofia, a public relations executive.
Fay had been accused of getting into bed with the 20-year- old victim after she had consensual sex with his friend who was asleep next to her.
The jury at New York’s Supreme Court did not believe his account that she woke him up and initiated sex.
Fay had denied rape, sex abuse and a criminal sexual act while the victim was ‘physically incapable’ of giving consent. He was convicted on all three counts and was remanded in protective custody until his sentencing on February 27.
Judge Melissa Jackson also said she wanted Fay put on suicide watch. The twowhere week trial heard claims that Fay was driven by a ‘desire for sex’ and had tried to call prostitutes shortly before the incident, all of which was a jarring contrast to his life of wealth and privilege.
Fay, who was born in London, is a former star lacrosse player at his US prep school and was brought up in the British Virgin Islands, his family live. After the verdict was read out Fay was handcuffed. His mother tried to get up to see her son but was held back by a guard.
As Fay was taken from the court he waved to his mother, who blew a kiss at him. He could be heard sobbing as he was led into the cells, while his mother put her head in her hands and said: ‘Jesus Christ.’ His mother and father declined to comment after the case, as did their attorney Daniel Bibb. Fay and a group of friends had been out drinking on July 9 last year when his best friend Jack Slye took the woman back to the apartment sex. before Fay where 4am arrived when they the had home student consensual shortly and Mr Slye were asleep in Fay’s bed, the lower part of a bunk bed. Assistant District Attorney Sara Sullivan said Fay could have slept on one of two couches or the top bunk, but instead he chose to get in bed with them. She said: ‘The defendant didn’t get into bed because he thought he deserved to sleep in his own bed, he got into bed because there was an undressed sleeping girl in that bed and he wanted to touch her.’
Sullivan told the court that Fay made a sexual advance on the woman while she was sleeping because he was ‘ testing the waters’ and ‘seeing what he could get away with’.
When she did not wake up he carried on and began what the DA called a nightmare.
Sullivan said: ‘She wakes up and she sees a face she has never seen before. She looks next to her and sees Mr Slye sleeping and that’s when her world falls apart. Now she’s awake.’ Sullivan said that Fay lied about the attack on the night and had been lying ever since. She dismissed his story that the student started having sex with him as ‘ridiculous’.
Fay had been staying at the apartment owned by family friends on Manhattan’s Upper East Side while he did a summer internship with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
His father’s law practice is based on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands but he remains an honorary member of London’s Radcliffe Chambers. Mr and Mrs Fay also have homes on Jersey in the Channel Islands and in Massachusetts.