‘VICTIM’ TOOK 14 MONTHS TO REPORT STAR OF UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
THREE years ago, a group of teenage university students went out to celebrate the end of their first year. With their exams behind them and summer ahead, they hit the bars and clubs of York, downing cheap spirits and alcopops with abandon. They returned to their halls of residence in the early hours, worse for wear.
What happened next would have a devastating impact on the lives of two of the 19-year-olds. It also serves as a grim warning of the problem of binge drinking at universities and the risks regarding sexual consent when alcohol is involved.
one of the students in question is Bartolomeo Joly de Lotbiniere, 22, and known as Barto to his friends. He was accused of raping a geography student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, by forcing himself on her in her bedroom.
His accuser said his advances were unwanted and she froze in terror as he undressed her and carried her to the bed.
De Lotbiniere insisted it was a ‘twoway’ consensual, one-night stand. ‘Drunk or sober I would never rape anybody,’ he told the court.
After two trials spread over seven months, a jury believed him – making him the fourth university student in recent years to be cleared of rape in similar circumstances of drunken nights out ending in allegations of sexual assault.
Earlier this year a jury in York failed to reach a verdict. However, the jury at his retrial at Bradford Crown Court found him not guilty of rape and sexual assault after six hours of deliberation yesterday.
De Lotbiniere sobbed in the dock after the verdicts were announced. He then hugged his father and other relatives who had supported him through both trials. They all declined to comment.
HOWEVER, his prestigious family name will now be associated with all the lurid details of that morning in June 27, 2014, and a trial which heard him described as a sexually inexperienced ‘ creepy lech’. Embarrassing and difficult details to brush aside.
De Lotbiniere grew up in affluent Kensal Rise, north west London, and is from a middle-class family of high achievers.
His grandfather was the acclaimed Tv documentary maker Tony de Lotbiniere, his mother Amanda, 53, is a psychologist and his father Max, 54, a journalist. He is the eldest of three children, with younger sister Aphra, 20, an art student, and brother Bede, 17.
Fiercely intelligent, he achieved all As or A*s in his GSCEs and Alevels at the prestigious Roman Catholic Cardinal vaughan Memorial School. He edited the university newspaper and wrote articles for a newspaper in York during his studies.
Had it not been for his appearance on University Challenge 14 months after the alleged attack, he may well have never been charged with rape.
He appeared in six episodes of the BBC2 quiz show, presented by Jeremy Paxman, and became something of an internet sensation thanks to his unusual name, which is French-Canadian.
Richard osman, one of the hosts on gameshow Pointless, tweeted to his half a million followers: ‘Marks for surnames on University Challenge 10 out of 10 – Joly de Lotbiniere.’ others on social media described him as posh and cute.
His accuser, who is orginally from the West Country, became angry at the attention he was receiving and went to the police.
Following his arrest De Lotbiniere insisted: ‘These are horrible, horrible lies... this is wrong.’
After such a long passage of time there was no forensic evidence and both juries had to rely on individual testimonies, accounts from friends and text messages.
The first, sent by the woman two days after the incident, said she was ‘not overly comfortable with what had happened’.
De Lotbiniere replied with what appears, on the face of it, to be a potentially damning message: ‘I was a disgrace. I did a very stupid thing and I’m very sorry for what I did. I just hope you can forgive
me at some point and I will try my best not to act like a bloody 14-year-old again and start acting my age, sorry.’
He later explained away this text by saying he was trying to apologise for his inadequate sexual performance.
‘It was a failed one-night stand. I was putting across I was a big guy who could do a one-night stand and could perform. In reality I couldn’t,’ he said.
He said the night had ‘fizzled out’ leaving only ‘disappointment and regret’.
He apologised again in a second text sent the next term and suggested they ‘now move on as mutual friends’.
Although the woman said the messages were an acknowledgement of guilt, the jury of five men and seven women believed his version of events. During the trial the court heard details of the night they spent with three other friends at York’s Tokyo nightclub (now called Fibbers) and then at notorious student nightspot Willow, which has since closed down.
AFTerdowning sambuca and vodka they returned to the halls of residence at around 4am. De Lotbiniere said he had been drinking spirits but was not ‘overly drunk’.
The woman, who was single, said she had drunk sambuca and an alcopop.
Their drinking is not unusual: a survey published earlier this year of student alcohol habits at Cambridge University revealed that almost one in three admitted drinking more than the weekly recommended limit of 14 units.
Drinking to excess goes hand in hand with the risk of assault or injury, as well as presenting huge problems regarding sexual consent when either or both parties have drunk too much.
So what can be done to stem the tide of reckless alcohol consumption among students?
Barrister Cathy McCulloch defended one of the three other university rape cases involving alcohol.
He was Durham University student Alastair Cooke, 23, who walked free after being accused of raping a 23-yearold student in her home when she was very drunk and unresponsive.
Jurors at Durham Crown Court last December couldn’t agree on a verdict and the prosecution decided against a retrial.
Miss McCulloch, who was the victim of vicious online trolling after the case, believes it is imperative that attitudes to sex and alcohol change in universities, describing her client’s ordeal as ‘every young man’s nightmare’.
She said: ‘Young men need to learn that if a woman presents as drunk but gives all the signs, as they see it, of consenting, she can still say later that she was not fit to consent.’
She believes parents need to warn children about the risks of mixing sex and alcohol.
‘I seem to be getting an awful lot of rape cases,’ she added. ‘Most of my recent rape cases are of men accused of rape because they have sex with a drunk woman. They have gone out and had sex with a drunk woman even when they are drunk themselves which some people find bizarre.
‘Be careful of mixing alcohol with sex because it can come back and haunt you and leave you with a criminal record.
‘I am passionate about protecting people and justice and I am passionate about protecting young women and the young men I represent who are just starting their sex lives.
‘Parents will tell their children about the birds and bees but I think it would be better if they spoke about the birds, the bees and alcohol.’
EngIneerIngstudent george Worrall, 22, another Durham University student, endured a ‘ life - changing’ 18- month ordeal before rape charges against him were dropped.
He was charged with two rapes and one sexual assault dating from December 2014 after he took a woman back to his digs. But just weeks before his trial the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case, due to ‘inconsistencies’ in his accuser’s account of events.
He called for anonymity for men accused of sexual offences and spoke out on behalf of the ‘many young men, especially in higher education, who face similar situations’.
Louis richardson, 21, a third Durham University undergraduate, was cleared of rape and sexual assault in January 2016 following a high-profile trial. The former secretary of the university debating society faced separate charges relating to two women not known to each other. He was accused of raping a woman at his student house in March 2014 when she was