This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/10/ched-evans-tells-retrial-that-woman-consented-to-sex
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Ched Evans tells rape retrial that woman consented to sex | Ched Evans tells rape retrial that woman consented to sex |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The international footballer Ched Evans has told the jury at his retrial that a teenager he is accused of raping consented to sex with him. | |
| Evans, who has played for Manchester City, Sheffield United and Wales, claimed the 19-year-old woman enjoyed having sex with him and rejected the allegation she was too intoxicated to consent. | |
| He also denied that it was “sinister” to have left the hotel where the alleged rape took place via a fire door. He claimed it was a convenient short cut to the main road from the hotel, located in the seaside town of Rhyl in north Wales. | |
| The woman had told the jury that she woke up naked in the room with no memory of getting there and fearing she had been attacked after her drinks were spiked. The prosecution alleges she could not possibly have consented to sex as she was too intoxicated. Evans denies rape. | The woman had told the jury that she woke up naked in the room with no memory of getting there and fearing she had been attacked after her drinks were spiked. The prosecution alleges she could not possibly have consented to sex as she was too intoxicated. Evans denies rape. |
| In the witness box at Cardiff crown court, Evans was asked by his barrister, Judy Khan QC: “During sex was she consenting?” He replied: “Yes.” | In the witness box at Cardiff crown court, Evans was asked by his barrister, Judy Khan QC: “During sex was she consenting?” He replied: “Yes.” |
| “How did you know that?” the barrister asked. “From how she was acting, what she said to me,” Evans replied. | |
| Khan asked: “Is there any doubt in your mind that she was consenting?” Evans replied: “No.” | |
| “How did she seem to you?” the barrister asked. “She seemed like she was having sex and enjoying herself,” Evans said. | |
| The QC continued: “Did she appear too drunk to consent?” “No”. “Did she appear to know what was going on around her?” “Yes.” “If she had been too drunk to consent, would you have had sex with her?” “No.” | |
| Khan concluded her examination by asking: “Did you rape [the woman]?” Evans replied: “No.” | Khan concluded her examination by asking: “Did you rape [the woman]?” Evans replied: “No.” |
| Evans claims that he and another footballer, Clayton McDonald, had consensual sex with the teenager. The jury has been told that McDonald “hooked” the teenager when she was heavily intoxicated following a night out in the early hours of 30 May 2011. | |
| Evans was convicted of rape in April 2012 but his appeal was allowed. The jury has been told that in 2013 a website offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to his acquittal. That was removed from the website in October 2015 when the case was referred to the appeal court, the court heard. McDonald was cleared of rape. | |
| At the start of his testimony on day four of his trial, Evans told the jury he signed for Manchester City when he was 13 and transferred to Sheffield United in 2009. He was capped for Wales 13 times. | |
| He said at the time of the alleged rape that he had a girlfriend called Natasha Massey and that they were still together. They had a son and planned to have more children and marry, he said. | |
| On the night of the alleged rape, Evans was in Rhyl with two friends he knew from his Manchester City days including McDonald. He told the jury he had booked a hotel room for his friend, who lived in Cheshire. | |
| He said his friends went out on the town. “I was drunk but I was in control of myself,” Evans told the jury. | |
| He became separated from McDonald and received a text message from him. It said “something along the lines I’ve got a bird or I’ve met a bird”, Evans said. | |
| The footballer said he decided to go to the hotel. Asked why he said: “To see if I knew her. I was being juvenile, having a laugh, just being childish.” | |
| Evans said he let himself into the hotel room without knocking. McDonald and the woman were having sex, he said. “The door slammed behind me. They both looked at me. Clay looked at her and said: ‘Can my mate join in?’ She looked at me and said: ‘Yes.’” | |
| Evans said his younger brother and another man, who had accompanied him to the hotel, were outside at the window giggling. | |
| He told the jury the woman asked him to perform a sex act on her and then they had full sex. “She was making noises like she was enjoying herself,” he said. Evans claimed the woman took the lead and used explicit language. | |
| McDonald left and Evans said he pulled away from the woman. “The situation I was in became real. I was cheating my girlfriend,” he said. | |
| During cross-examination by prosecutor Simon Medland QC, Evans conceded he did not know the woman’s name; he did not say goodbye; he did not thank her or kiss her as he left. Evans said: “On reflection I shouldn’t have behaved that way.” | |
| Medland told him: “You left the room and disappeared into the night.” Evans said it was daylight when he left. | |
| The prosecutor suggested his decision to leave via the fire door was “sinister” and he was covering his tracks. Evans replied: “No.” He insisted there was no plan between him and McDonald. | |
| Evans was asked about CCTV footage from earlier that night in which the woman was seen falling over in a kebab shop. Evans said: “In the room she was not all over the place.” | |
| Medland suggested the woman did not even know she was having sex with Evans at all. “She knew I was having sex with her. She looked at me as I came into the room,” he said. | |
| The trial continues. |