Sleepwalking barman is cleared of sex assaults

A MAN accused of raping a female friend three times in a matter of minutes was cleared yesterday after claiming that he had been sleepwalking.

James Bilton slumped forward in the dock as the jury of seven women and five men brought in their unanimous verdict after a week-long trial.

The 22- year- old bar worker had never denied having sex with the woman, a friend of his for more than a year, but told the court that he knew nothing about it.

After hearing his unusual defence, the jury took less than three hours to clear him of three charges of rape.

York Crown Court heard that he had let the 22-year- old friend sleep in his bed when they returned to his flat after a night out with other friends. He fell asleep on the sofa and insisted that the next thing he knew was waking up as the ‘victim’ was leaving his flat. She claimed she had fallen asleep and woke to find Mr Bilton having sex with her.

He said nothing during the alleged rapes and afterwards climbed over her and went back to the sofa.

Mr Bilton said he could not deny having sex with the woman but had no recollection of doing so. He told police he had suffered from sleepwalking since he was 13 and had a family history of the condition. ‘It’s the only explanation I can come up with for this,’ he said. A sleepwalking expert told the court that Mr Bilton could have behaved like an automaton and had sex with the woman, but woken up without having any idea what he had done.

Dr Ishaad Ebrahim, medical director of the London Sleep Centre, said that between one and twoanda- half per cent of the adult population sleepwalk.

Of those, only 4 per cent are believed to walk in their sleep and carry out sex acts.

‘ Sleepwalkers do not remember that they have sleepwalked,’ he said, adding that those who have the condition can do anything that they can do when awake.

He said it was clear that Mr Bilton had the condition, but added that it was difficult to use it convincingly as a defence.

Mr Bilton responded to tests ‘in the way you would expect a sleepwalker to respond’, he added.

The woman said Mr Bilton, who she considered a good friend, had put her to bed in his flat in York after their night out last March and even kissed her on the forehead before he went to sleep on a sofa.

‘ As he left the bedroom I thought, what a nice guy,’ she said.

But later she claimed that she woke up to find her jeans had been taken off and her friend was on the bed, where she claimed he committed three sex acts on her.

She denied any suggestion that she had consented to sex, saying she just ‘ felt numb’ during the attack.

‘I went to sleep with my trousers on and woke up with them off,’ she added.

She said she had not struggled because she thought the attack would be over quicker that way. She agreed it was ‘very fast, rough, inconsiderate and without affection’. Summing up, Judge Shaun Spencer told the jury that it was ‘ extremely rare’ for someone who was sleepwalking to carry out sexual acts.

He added: ‘If Mr Bilton’s account is truthful, he is one of those exceedingly rare cases.’

After the verdict, Mr Bilton left court in tears without making any comment.

Yesterday’s case follows a similar acquittal in Canada last month. A Toronto judge ruled that Jan Luedecke, 33, was asleep during an alleged rape in 2003.

His accuser fell asleep on a couch after a party and says she awoke to find Mr Luedecke having sex with her.

The case outraged women’s groups in Canada when the judge decided that the defendant’s conduct was ‘not voluntary’.