Commonwealth swimmer cleared of raping ‘passed around’ woman

♦ A Commonwealth Games swimmer has been cleared of raping a woman who claimed he and his friend “passed her around” after a jury was told that “regretted sex is not rape”.

Otto Putland, 24, who represented Wales at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014, denied raping the woman in July 2015 and was acquitted at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday.

The woman, who came forward in November 2016, said she went home with Ieuan Lloyd, the Welsh Olympic swimmer, after meeting him in a club and had consensual sex with him.

She said when Putland came into the room after Lloyd left, she made it clear she did not want to have sex, telling him they could not “pass her around”, saying “no” and turning her head. Putland denied her claims and said the woman was “very friendly and happy and flirtatious” after he had been introduced to her by Lloyd.

He said it was her demeanour which led to him kissing her, her returning his kisses, and then to consensual sex and that the woman did nothing to make him think she did not consent.

Christopher Rees, defending, told jurors: “Bad sex is not rape. Sex after one party has persuaded the other to have sex consensually is not rape. Regretted sex is not rape.” He said there were “glaring inconsistencies” in what the woman told people at various times about the night.