Rape case reveals perils of casual sex in ‘world of modern students’
THE alleged rape of a drunken undergraduate is typical of the “world of modern students”, a court has heard.
Lewis Tappenden, 24, is accused of raping the 18-year-old student after meeting her for the first time on a night out. The pair are said to have started kissing within a minute of meeting at the Drawing Room nightclub, with the teenager allegedly picking him up after telling her friends she was going “out on the pull”.
CCTV from the night showed the teenager, who was studying at York St John University, leading Tappenden, who was, until recently, a student, out of the club and the two holding hands and kissing on the walk to her halls of residence. The jury at York Crown Court also saw footage of Tappenden and the student, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, kissing in the lift on the way up to her room.
The court heard the alleged victim later changed her mind and said “no”.
Tappenden is said to have held her down to have sex before being ejected from her room after her flatmates alerted security.
Yesterday, prosecutor Tom Storey warned the jury they were not passing judgment on morals as he said: “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.”
He said Tappenden had turned violent when the student changed her mind as they lay in bed.
“He knew why he was there, he knew what he wanted and he carried on regardless,” Mr Storey said.
Emma Rance, defending, said the case should serve as a “warning to every man who goes back to a woman’s room for a one-night stand about the repercussions when that woman later regrets it”.
The court heard the teenager started kissing Tappenden within a minute of meeting him in the nightclub.
The jury was told they went to her room before lying naked on her bed and having sex. But when he went to be sick in her bathroom she fled the room. Tappenden then locked himself in her room and university security had to gain access and escort him from the halls of residence. A few days later she accused him of rape, but told police she did not know his name. Days after the alleged rape the student dropped out of university.
Tappenden, of Huntington, Cambs, denies two charges of rape on Oct 2, 2015.
The case continues.