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Tory aide raped woman in boss's office in parliament, court hears Tory aide raped woman in MP's office in parliament, court hears
(about 2 hours later)
A Conservative MP’s chief of staff abused his position to rape a woman in the Houses of Parliament, a court has heard. An MP’s chief of staff raped an intern working for him in the Houses of Parliament after a night of drinking, a court has heard. Samuel Armstrong was accused of attacking the woman in the office of their boss, the Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay, last year.
Samuel Armstrong, 24, is alleged to have attacked the woman, who also worked in parliament, after drinking with her in the Palace of Westminster. The jury heard Armstrong recruited the woman and later used his position of power over her. After the attack, the court was told, she fled through the Palace of Westminster, before asking a cleaner to call the police for her.
Armstrong, an aide for Craig Mackinlay, the South Thanet MP, is said to have taken advantage of his victim, who is in her 20s, when they were alone in his boss’s office. “On a night in the autumn of last year, this defendant abused his position – his position as someone newly in charge of other people. And, after an evening drinking at his workplace with others – including a young office intern whom he had recently interviewed and recruited, he took her back to the office of their employer after hours and, once there and alone, took advantage of her,”Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said.
The prosecutor Mark Heywood QC said he had raped her twice, adding: “In doing so, we suggest, he was interested only in himself. She, in distress, walked and ran through the corridors of that place, Westminster, eventually finding and telling a member of cleaning staff what had happened. Opening the prosecution’s case, he added: “The essence of it is that he raped her, both vaginally and orally. And, in doing so, we suggest, he abused his role and his position.”
“He went out another way, using his pass and sending her messages, one of which suggested that he was concerned and that she contact him if she had ‘any issues’.” Armstrong was charged with two counts of sexual assault and two of rape. “Each of those charges reflects things that happened to her – that he did to her,” Heywood said.
Armstrong, from Danbury in Essex, is standing trial at Southwark crown court in London, where he denies two counts of rape, one of sexual assault and one of assault by penetration on 14 October 2016. He appeared in the dock on Tuesday, as the prosecutor outlined the case against him. The jury was played a recording of a police interview with the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in which she described the attack.
Heywood said: “On a night in the autumn of last year this defendant abused his position.” In the recording, she told an officer she froze after Armstrong started to kiss her. She said she explicitly declined an invitation to go back to Armstrong’s flat but he undressed her and raped her.
The prosecutor told the jury that after an evening of drinking at his workplace, Armstrong allegedly took advantage of the woman after hours when they were alone in Mackinlay’s office. She said he told her: “This is what you want”, which made her feel there was an “inevitability” that they would have sex, despite her not wanting to.
Jurors were told Armstrong claimed what had happened had taken place with “full consent”. The prosecutor said Armstrong, who is now 24, originally started working for the Conservative party as a volunteer activist and moved to Mackinlay’s office after the MP’s election in 2015. He later became his chief of staff and was responsible for interviewing and overseeing the process of her appointment as an unpaid intern.
The trial, which is expected to last for two weeks, continues. The court heard that the pair had been drinking in the Sports and Social bar, within the Houses of Parliament, and, at one point in the night, Armstrong took her to the roof garden terrace so she could hear Big Ben chime. Later, the court heard that they went with two other people to the Lords’ office, before Armstrong and the woman headed alone to Mackinlay’s office; ostensibly, the prosecutor said, so she could pick up some of her belongings.
CCTV footage shown to the jury showed them in Westminster Hall and, the prosecution said: “It is obvious that the mood between them was light-hearted and playful.”
After they went to the MP’s office, the jury heard that the woman fell asleep. “That is where it began to go wrong,” Heywood said. “The defendant took gross advantage of the situation and of her obvious and open friendliness towards him.”
Armstrong became insistent and determined, the prosecutor continued. “As he knew perfectly well, he had her a very distinct disadvantage. His manner was now changed. He repeatedly called her a ‘bitch’.”
CCTV footage from later in the evening was also shown to the jury and the prosecution said it showed her “moving in an agitated way, neither relaxed nor at all happy … her steps are purposeful; she looks around herself and behind her at times and her step breaks into a little run from time to time”.
Armstrong denies the charges. The trial continues.