Terminally ill Downton producer spared jail for drug-fuelled sex attack
AN award-winning Downton Abbey producer has avoided jail after sexually assaulting a woman at a cocaine-fuelled party.
Terminally ill Chris Croucher, 39, who was once photographed on set with the Duchess of Cambridge, was given a 12-month community order and threemonth curfew after admitting sexual assault.
He also admitted common assault of another woman who had tried to protect her friend from his advances..
Croucher propositioned his victim at the Christmas party in Soho, central London, on December 18, 2019, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Fuelled by alcohol and cocaine, he then chased her around an office shirtless.
Croucher, who worked on five series of the ITV drama and on films with Hollywood stars Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, had drunk several bottles of wine as the group toured London bars.
Four of the group, including Croucher and the victim, went to an office to take cocaine, Iestyn Morgan, prosecuting, said. He added: ‘The sexual assault victim sat on the sofa and he sat down next to her.
‘He pressed her against the sofa and was touching her.
‘He was saying to the other people present, “Let’s have a threesome, or a foursome!”.
‘He was making jokes, but it also appeared serious.’
Croucher took his top off and when the victim bent over to retrieve her phone he began touching himself behind her, Mr Morgan said, adding: ‘Her friend shouted at him to stop.
‘The victim hadn’t seen that directly but she turned around so she could see his hand was in his pants. She pushed past him, went to the exit. He tried to follow her. As his trousers were undone he was too slow. She was able to get away.’
Croucher has terminal cancer, with tumours in his heart and lungs, and may have only months to live, the court heard.
But the sexual assault victim said that, despite his diagnosis, he should not be allowed to get away with his behaviour.
In a statement, she added: ‘I feel very alone this year, it’s made me scared to go out alone in the day as well as at night.
‘I feel angry with him, even though I sympathise with him
‘Disgusting behaviour’
for being very ill, but I feel he needs to be punished. I feel like I can’t move on, but I think he has so freely.
‘I fear so much I will... see him out and about.’
Croucher was suspended from his job and later sacked after the allegations were made.
Francesca Levett, defending, said he ‘did not recognise himself’ when he read his victims’ statements and did not recall the details of the party.
‘He does accept from what he’s read and what has come back to him over time that he is in fact entirely responsible for the offences and he offers an unreserved apology to the victims,’ she added.
Croucher apologised to the two women in person the morning after and referred himself to Alcoholics Anonymous.
He said: ‘My actions that night were shocking and I will continue to work to make sure that person no longer returns. Sobriety is key to that. I will battle that for the rest of my life and I think it’s a battle I can win.’
Judge Phillip Bartle QC told the court: ‘The victim impact statements of both of those young ladies make for very, very chastening reading.
‘He acknowledges his culpability, that he doesn’t recognise himself and that he is thoroughly ashamed, as he should be, of his appalling and disgusting behaviour.’
The judge added: ‘I’m told that he was suspended as a result of what occurred and he has lost his job. It is a tragic circumstance that the defendant has terminal cancer.’
Croucher, of Haslemere, Surrey, admitted one count of sexual assault and one count of common assault and was made subject to a 12-month community order with a curfew banning him from leaving his address between 9pm and 9am.
He must also sign the sex offender’s register for five years.