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Ched Evans trial: woman awoke confused in hotel room, court told
Ched Evans trial: woman awoke confused in hotel room, court told
(about 4 hours later)
A young woman allegedly raped by the footballer Ched Evans said she woke up naked in a hotel room with no recollection of how she had got there or if anyone else had been with her, a court has heard.
A young waitress allegedly raped by the footballer Ched Evans has described waking up naked in a hotel room with no memory of getting there and fearing she had been attacked after her drinks were spiked.
The woman told police she could not remember anything after leaving a kebab shop following a night out and believed her drinks may have been spiked.
The woman, who was 19 at the time, said she was dazed and confused and had no idea of who, if anyone, had been in the room with her.
In a video of the interview, shown to a jury at Cardiff crown court on Wednesday, she said: “I felt in a daze. I felt still intoxicated. I was dead drained and tired. That’s why I feel I may have been spiked.”
On day two of his re-trial, Evans’ barrister cross-examined the woman for more than an hour, asking her questions about her sexual partners at the time of the incident and her sexual preferences.
The woman, who was 19 and working as a waiter at the time, dabbed away tears as she told officers: “I don’t know what happened.”
The barrister, Judy Khan QC, told the woman that Evans’s case was that he had walked into the hotel room when his friend, Clayton McDonald, was having consensual sex with her. McDonald asked: “Can my mate join in?” and the woman agreed, said Khan.
Jurors have been told that a friend of Evans “hooked” the teenager when she was heavily intoxicated and went with her in a taxi to the hotel in the early hours of 30 May 2011.
Giving her evidence from behind a screen so that neither members of the public nor Evans could see her, the woman said she had no recollection of that happening. The woman denied using explicit and coarse language during the incident, insisting she would not have said such things.
Evans, 27, who has played for Manchester City, Sheffield United and Norwich, is said to have arrived at the hotel soon after the pair and allegedly raped the woman before leaving via a fire exit. He denies rape.
The jury at Cardiff crown court has been told that McDonald “hooked” the teenager when she was heavily intoxicated following a night out in the seaside town of Rhyl in north Wales and went with her in a taxi to the hotel in the early hours of 30 May 2011.
In the police interviews, which took place in 2011, the woman told officers she had two large glasses of wine after work before drinking four double vodkas with lemonade and a shot of sambuca at a bar. “I felt tipsy,” she said. “I was still in control. I usually drink more than that. I’ve drunk a lot more than that and not blacked out.”
Evans, 27, who has played for Manchester City, Sheffield United and Norwich, is said to have arrived at the hotel soon afterwards and allegedly raped the woman before leaving via a fire exit. He denies the offence.
She remembered dancing but had no memory of leaving the club. “I’ve got a vague recollection of being in a kebab shop,” she said. “I remember trying to have a piece of pizza. There were voices around me. It’s like a blur.”
In videos of police interviews shown to the jury, the woman told officers she had two large glasses of wine after work before drinking four double vodkas with lemonade and a shot of sambuca at a bar. “I felt tipsy,” she said. “I was still in control. I usually drink more than that. I’ve drunk a lot more than that and not blacked out.”
The next thing she said she remembered was waking up naked in a bed in a hotel room at 11.30am, her clothes scattered around.
She had no memory of leaving the bar in the early hours. “I’ve got a vague recollection of being in a kebab shop,” she said. “I remember trying to have a piece of pizza. There were voices around me. It’s like a blur.”
She said: “I panicked. I was confused I didn’t know why I had gone there or who I was with. I didn’t know anyone had been in the room with me. I was dazed and confused.”
Jurors were shown footage of her in the kebab shop. At one point she fell over and had to be helped up.
From behind a screen in court, the alleged victim watched CCTV footage of herself in the kebab shop. She is seen stumbling and falling over at one point.
The next thing she remembered, the woman told police, was waking up naked in a bed in a hotel room at 11.30am, her clothes scattered around.
In his opening speech on Tuesday, Simon Medland QC, prosecuting, told the jury there was no suggestion that Evans had spiked her drinks.
She said: “I panicked. I was confused. I didn’t know why I had gone there or who I was with. I didn’t know anyone had been in the room with me. I was dazed and confused.”
But Medland argued that the woman could not possibly have consented to sex because of her intoxicated state.
In the witness box, the woman was asked in detail about two former sexual partners she had at about the time of the alleged rape.
He said: “We submit that she was that intoxicated – for whatever reason – that she didn’t really know what on earth was happening and that what the facts of this case show is that she was raped by this young footballer in that room, not that she had consensual sex with him.
Khan told her: “Nothing I ask is designed to embarrass, humiliate or upset you. The jury have to assess your evidence, what you’re saying about these things. That’s why I’m asking these questions.”
“It is not a proper description, we suggest, to say that he had sex with [her]; it is more accurate perhaps to say to that he ‘did’ sex to her. Sex without consent is rape.”
The prosecution alleges the woman was so intoxicated that she could not possibly have consented to sex.
Medland said the woman would tell the jury she did not consent, adding: “How could she? There is good reason to conclude, we submit, that she didn’t even know Ched Evans was having sex with her.
But Khan pointed out that during the period she says she cannot remember she was able to text a friend – and spell accurately – order food and do up the buttons of her top.
“She had to piece together some fairly fragmentary memories of events later the next morning … long after this defendant had slipped away into the night through the fire escape door.”
Asked by prosecutor Simon Medland QC if the woman had known at the time of the incident who Evans or McDonald was, she replied simply: “No.”
The jury heard how earlier that night, Evans, then 22, and a friend, Clayton McDonald, had been in the same bar as the woman in Rhyl, north Wales.
He said: “It’s been suggested you had consensual sex with Mr McDonald, that you were happy to have Ched Evans join in. Is that right?” Again she replied: “No.”
The woman ended up at the kebab shop, where as well as falling over she collided with a delivery car outside, and dropped and left her handbag.
McDonald was cleared of rape at an earlier trial. Evans was convicted but successfully appealed against his conviction and is being retried.
“He [McDonald] had managed to hook the intoxicated, stumbling [woman],” said Medland. “They got into a taxi and the taxi driver formed the view that [she] was ‘drunk, very docile and not with it’.”
From the taxi McDonald made a phone call to someone saying: “I’ve got a girl.” The prosecution alleges he was speaking to Evans.
McDonald, the woman and Evans ended up in the same hotel room, where the alleged rape took place.
Jurors were told that Evans and McDonald have already stood trial. Evans was convicted and McDonald was found not guilty. Evans successfully appealed against his conviction and is being retried.
