Swim star ‘raped woman passed on by his friend’
Man accused of attack on student after she had sex with Team GB Olympian, who then ‘abandoned’ her
A COMMONWEALTH Games swimmer raped a woman who was “passed around” by a fellow athlete who competed for Team GB at the Olympics, a court was told yesterday.
Otto Putland, 23, is accused of getting into bed with the 19-year-old student after she had consensual sex with Ieuan Lloyd, his best friend.
The student said she slept with Mr Lloyd, who swam for Britain in both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, after meeting him at a nightclub. But she claimed he then “abandoned” her and welcomed his friend Mr Putland into the bedroom, before switching off the bedroom light and closing the door behind him.
She refused sex, telling Mr Putland she would not be “passed around”, Cardiff Crown Court heard.
In a statement read out in court, the girl said: “Otto and Ieuan were both having a conversation outside the room with the door open. Otto came in and started taking his shoes off. So I text[ed] my friend for help because I thought something might happen.
“I told him [Mr Putland]: ‘What are you doing – you can’t pass me around’. He said: ‘We’re not passing you around’. I told him I didn’t want to have sex with him and he kept trying to kiss me.
“Then he took off his boxers. He asked: ‘Do you want me to put a condom on?’ I was crying and turning my head away from him.”
She claimed Mr Putland then began to have sex with her. She ran to the bathroom to text her friend for help, before passing out. She later woke to find Mr Putland raping her again, but was able to push him off and leave the house, the court heard.
Prosecutor Janet Mcdonald said: “She is a lady just out of school, celebrating freedom from exams.
“She fell for Mr Lloyd … but she did not consent with Mr Putland. She did not consent to being passed around. When Mr Lloyd abandoned her, as she said, he was no help to her.”
Miss Mcdonald said the allegation was not reported to police until July last year – 16 months after the incident – because the woman, now 22, was “upset and annoyed with herself ”.
Mr Putland, who swam for Wales in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, told police he was introduced to the girl at Mr Lloyd’s home in Adamsdown, Cardiff, after coming home from Glam nightclub in the city centre.
He said that while he did not know her name or where she was from, the pair had consensual sex after the girl began flirting with him.
“She spoke normally to me,” said Mr Putland. “I was on the bed and moved up so I was against the headboard. She was flirtatious to me and we started kissing. She didn’t say anything to make me believe she didn’t want to engage.
“She hadn’t said anything about being passed around at that point. Had she done so, I would not have had sex.
“It lasted about a minute. Then she said she felt like she’d been passed around. She sounded frustrated.
“I said: ‘OK let’s get your stuff and you can go now’ and I let her out. It wasn’t a memorable evening. I didn’t know her name, where she was from.”
Timothy Evans, defending, warned the jury about the “subtleties” involved in the case.
He also pointed out no text sent by the girl to a friend asking for help had ever been found, and called witness statements from the girl’s friends “ridiculous” because of their contradicting accounts.
Mr Evans said: “There’s nothing consistent at all in the evidence from the witnesses. Mr Putland does not know why she’s made this up.”
Mr Putland, of Dinedor, Hereford, denies two counts of rape.
The trial continues.
‘She did not consent to being passed around. When Mr Lloyd abandoned her, as she said, he was no help to her’