Former aide to Blair and Major accused of rape

A FORMER senior Downing Street civil servant has appeared in court accused of raping a woman in a car.

Mark Adams, 56, who acted as private secretary to both Tony Blair and John Major for six years in the Nineties, is charged with carrying out the sex attack in Regent Road, Edinburgh, last August. He pleaded not guilty to the charge at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday.

Prosecutors claim the woman was initially asleep in the parked car, as well as being under the influence of alcohol. She was said to be “incapable of giving or with-holding consent”. The charge alleges that after she woke up, Adams took off her clothes and sexually assaulted her.

Simon Whyte, defending, told the court that he was not ready for a trial and a new date was set for a further hearing next month.

Adams, of Portsmouth, Hants, was released on bail.