Concert pianist ‘forced himself on woman after her drink was spiked’
A WOMAN was raped by a concert pianist amid suspicions her drink was spiked during a party at the Royal Northern College of Music, a court heard.
The 22-year-old fashion worker passed out after drinking two glasses of wine and one of cider and woke up naked to find Jacek Serafin having sex with her in a practice room, it was claimed.
She was said to be so incapacitated she was unable to tell him to stop. He was later seen carrying her to a taxi and took her to his flat where he sexually assaulted her, a jury heard. She told police she felt like an ‘inanimate object’ in ‘some kind of lab experiment’ before coming to her senses and telling him to stop.
She was found to be three times the drink- drive limit. No drugs were found in her system but tests were unable to rule out the use of a ‘date rape’ drug due to its rapid elimination rate, Manchester Crown Court was told.
Postgraduate student Serafin, 30, was arrested but has since gone missing.
The woman had gone to a party at the students’ union in September 2014 and met Serafin for the first time at the bar, telling police: ‘From then on it became more and more distorted.’ The jury heard that she remembered being ‘on the floor in the practice room’ at about 2.30am. Her next memory was at about 7am at his flat.
Serafin, from Hulme, Manchester, told police the woman ‘initiated kissing’ and they had sex, but when she said ‘no’ at his flat he stopped.
Last year he was found guilty of one count of assault by penetration but cleared of five charges of rape. A retrial was ordered on a sixth charge of rape after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
The judge told the jury Serafin’s absence ‘must not affect your judgment’. The trial continues.