Dating site ‘rapist’ accused of attacking woman after rejection for being too fat
Alleged victim tells court she was assaulted by man much heavier than his Match.com profile picture
A MAN raped a woman he met through a dating website after she refused to sleep with him because he was fatter than his profile picture looked, a court heard.
Christopher Schubert described himself on Match.com as a “big cuddly bear” and “looking for his mate”.
The 44-year-old exchanged flirty messages with the woman, and told her he made a living by selling designer clothes and shoes on ebay, Oxford Crown Court was told yesterday.
They arranged to meet at her Oxford home where he allegedly raped and sexually assaulted her when she rejected his advances.
The complainant told police that when he arrived at her property on Jan 30 2018, he looked nothing like the photos he had posted online.
She said he was morbidly obese and his stomach was so large that his shirt did not fully cover it.
“When he arrived, obviously I knew straightaway that he didn’t look like he did in his profile picture,” the woman told officers in an interview played to jurors at the court. “To be honest with you, I thought, ‘You’re absolutely huge. There is absolutely no way’.
“It doesn’t stop me liking someone because of his size, but it was never my intention to sleep with him. I’d already said we were not going to have sex. You end up getting to know someone over a cup of tea, and I invited him in to be sociable. I thought he was going to have a cup of tea and chat.”
The court heard that the pair ended up “kissing and cuddling” that evening, but there was no “explicit plan” for further sexual activity.
The woman said they had discussed sharing a bed if he paid her a visit, but she had made it clear they would not be having sex.
“Given his size, we would not have fitted comfortably in the same bed,” she told police.
“Even if I had a king-size bed, I’d have no personal space at all. I’d have nowhere to go.
“There had already been a conversation. He had invited me over to his, and he had a king-size bed. I said to him that if I felt comfortable, I’d sleep in a king-size bed, but I’d have my personal space.”
Mr Schubert allegedly performed a sex act on the woman before raping her in her bedroom.
The sex was not consensual and caused her “excruciating pain”, the prosecution alleges.
A medical examination carried out after the alleged rape showed “lacerations and abrasions” consistent with “rough” sex, the jury heard.
Charles Ward-jackson, prosecuting, said: “This is a case about a woman who was raped and sexually assaulted in her own home, by a man she had just met on an internet dating site, that man being Schubert.”
Match.com is one of the UK’S biggest dating sites and has around three million users.
The accused, of St Neots, Cambs, left the property in the early hours of the morning to drive back to his own home, and the complainant reported him to police that morning.
He claims the sex was consensual and denies two counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault by penetration. The trial continues.
‘Even if I had a kingsize bed, I’d have no personal space at all. I’d have nowhere to go’