Judge: Ex-Tory MP took part in ‘risky sexual behaviour for years’
ANDREW Griffiths engaged in “sexually risky behaviour for many years”, the judge overseeing private family court hearings has found.
Judge Williscroft made a number of findings of fact – on the balance of probability – about the way Mr Griffiths had treated Ms Griffiths.
The judge heard that the Griffiths married in 2013 after forming a relationship about five years earlier. She heard that Mr Griffiths became an MP in 2010 and was a Government minister between January and July 2018. He resigned after a national newspaper reported that he had sent a series of lewd messages to two women.
Ms Griffiths became Burton’s MP in 2019. Judge Williscroft said she was sure that they had been a “glamorous couple”.
In 2010, Ms Griffiths found out Mr Griffiths had been having a “long affair”, the judge said in a ruling.
The woman he was involved with had appeared at the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, said the judge. He had accepted threatening the woman that “he would go to the press if she spoke to his wife”.
Ms Griffiths also discovered that Mr Griffiths had been sending “sexual texts” to “someone else” in 2011. Judge Williscroft said Mr Griffiths “described how he had engaged in what he described as sexually risky behaviour for many years, as he enjoyed it”.
He told the judge that he had been “addicted to pornography”.
The couple separated after Mr Griffiths was “exposed” as having sent “kinky and depraved … sexual text messages” to two women constituents in July 2018.
Judge Williscroft concluded that Mr Griffiths’ “own needs” took “precedence” during the marriage.
He had accused Ms Griffiths of “being frigid” in order to persuade her to “give in to his sexual demands”. The judge said it seemed to her that it had “never crossed Andrew Griffiths’ mind” that Ms Griffiths would not do what he liked her to do.
She said Mr Griffiths had “undermined” Ms Griffiths’ “selfesteem”.
He accepted that he had called Ms Griffiths “fat and lazy”.
The judge said Ms Griffiths had “proved in her oral evidence to me” that Mr Griffiths “did rape her when sexual intercourse took place”.
She said Ms Griffiths’ allegations had been “confirmed” by Mr Griffiths’ “responses”.
“Andrew Griffiths adamantly denied these allegations, saying he had never had any form of sexual contact that was not consensual,” said Judge Williscroft. “I could not accept there was sexual ‘give and take’ in their relationship.”
Ms Griffiths said rapes had begun while she was asleep.
Judge Williscroft said: “I accept that Kate Griffiths proved in her oral evidence to me and I find confirmed by Andrew Griffiths’ responses that he did rape her when sexual intercourse took place when he had already penetrated her when she was asleep.”
Ms Griffiths, who gave evidence behind a screen at court hearings so she could not see Mr Griffiths, had also given accounts of “physical abuse”. The judge said she found those accounts “proved”.
She alleged that during an argument he knelt on her and put his hands on her throat, trying to strangle her.
Mr Griffiths said no assault had taken place. Judge Williscroft said she “preferred” Ms Griffiths’ account. The judge found that Mr Griffiths had pushed Mrs Griffiths when she was heavily pregnant.
She said there had been an argument about Mr Griffiths’ “continued wish” that Ms Griffiths should move to London with him. Mr Griffiths had “wanted to be able to have family time in London ‘like David Cameron’”, the judge said.
Judge Williscroft said there had been an incident in a hotel where Mr Griffiths had thrown a passport and money at Ms Griffiths, pushed her on to a bed and told her to “**** off home”.
The judge described a “frightening loss of control” and said his “excessive response” was “worrying”.
Mr Griffiths had accepted being “abusive” to Ms Griffiths verbally and “hurt her when drunk”.
Meanwhile, Ms Griffiths’ barrister Charlotte Proudman yesterday posted a tweet describing the MP, who has said that she will campaign for victims of domestic violence, as “amazing”.