Teenager spiked and raped women as friend filmed

Traumatised victim left suicidal after assault

A rapist who “humiliated and degraded” two unconscious women after spiking their drinks as his friend “filmed the attacks and laughed” has been jailed.

Bradley Carman, of Sturry, subjected the young women to the sustained assaults at a Canterbury address after they were taken unwell in 2016. Judge Mark Weekes jailed the 22-year-old for seven-and-a-half years at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday.

He told Carman he “slipped chemicals or made drinks as strong as possible” to “render them unconscious”. “They were given drinks that made them very unwell,” he continued.

“There was evidence from both (during your trial) that it was recorded by your friend, and while you might not be responsible for that, you were a willing and enthusiastic participant. “You chose to fight this trial [against] what I deemed to be the clearest and compelling evidence.”

Carman argued during his trial in December that sexual contact with both women was consensual.

His lawyers argued the women falsely accused Carman after becoming shameful once a video of the ordeal began circulating. Carman’s barrister Kieran Brand told jurors the victims’ evidence was “inconsistent” and the pair behaved in a “reckless, impulsive manner”.

But jurors unanimously convicted Carman, who was 17 at the time of the attacks, of three counts of rape.

One victim told jurors she dipped in and out of consciousness while being attacked, as Carman’s friend filmed and laughed.

“We had one and a half drinks and after that I don’t remember what happened,” she continued. “I remember coming to and

Bradley was on top of me, I don’t remember what [happened] in between.

“I was really, really out of it. I wasn’t in the right position, I didn’t say no, I didn’t say yes either. I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I wasn’t in the right position to say no. “Someone was filming it, I remember someone filming it, it was dark and he had his flash on, laughing.” Carman’s second victim told how she was then attacked after falling unwell once she’d finished her drink.

“(It started) getting really weird, we started to feel not necessarily paralytic, but it wasn’t right,” she said.

The court heard both girls reported the attacks months afterwards, claiming they may have been spiked.

But it would take more than five years before they would see justice, owing to delays in the justice system, the court heard. At the sentencing hearing, one of the victims told how she attempted to take her own life in her battle with the aftermath, often experiencing feelings of being “alone and helpless”. “I thought death was my only way out,” she said. “Sometimes I get flashbacks and night terrors and wake up crying.”

The other victim told how the attack stripped away her confidence, replacing it instead with anxiety and trust issues. Carman, of Ince Road, was sentenced as a juvenile.

He will remain on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely. No charges have been brought against his friend.

Bradley Carman, from Sturry, has been jailed for rape