Sex with student was consensual, Nigel Evans tells court

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/01/nigel-evans-sex-consensual-court

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Nigel Evans, the former Commons deputy speaker, has insisted that the alleged rape of a 21-year-old student in his constituency home was an act of consensual sex from "beginning to end".

The MP denied taking the "ultimate advantage" of a young and "compliant" man following a drink-fuelled dinner party at his cottage in Pendleton, Lancashire, last March.

Under cross-examination at Preston crown court, Evans told jurors that he kissed and cuddled with the student on his sofa before the pair went to the MP's bedroom and undressed.

He said: "We both got in the centre of the bed and started cuddling. You see, what did he expect when we were both getting in the bed in our underwear when there are two other bedrooms?"

On his third day in the witness box, Evans repeatedly clashed with the prosecutor, Mark Heywood QC, as he denied a string of sexual offences leading up to the alleged rape on 30 March 2013.

The court heard that the alleged rape victim had just turned 21 at the time and was completing his final year of university.

Evans was described by Heywood as the sole actor in the events that led up to the alleged rape, which the MP repeatedly denied. "I'm not an actor – I'm one of the actors. There was two of us there," he said.

Heywood put it to the 56-year-old MP that the student was passive during the encounter and played no part in encouraging the sexual acts. "No, not at all," said Evans, later adding: "It was consensual from beginning to end."

Heywood said: "The truth is, over a period of 10 years you have made free with your hands whenever you've been drinking and have pressed your attentions on people who you have no business pressing your attentions."

Evans said: "No."

Heywood went on: "These have escalated in seriousness over time … when a particularly young and compliant individual was in your house you took ultimate advantage for your own sexual gratification."

Evans replied: "No, I did not."

Earlier, the MP complained that he had been portrayed in the trial as "a cross between Alan Clark, Oscar Wilde and Benny Hill". He described the crown's representation of him as "ridiculous" and said he had lost any prospect of becoming Commons Speaker as a result of the trial.

Evans was asked about his relationship with a 23-year-old politics student he allegedly sexually assaulted on a sofa at his constituency home in 2009.

"It was affection. There was affection between us," he said, describing how they held hands on the Commons terrace on a couple of occasions and once put six kisses on the end of a text message.

Asked how he felt the younger man was being flirtatious, Evans said: "We held hands together, we were in each other's company on the terrace. He smiled, we would have teas and coffees together, Friday chats together and, as you can see from the texts that are available, kisses at the end of them."

Evans denied putting his hand inside the young man's boxer shorts as they dozed together on his sofa, saying he only moved his hand down towards the student's waistline before he was rejected.

Asked what he hoped for by moving his hand down the younger man's body, Evans said: "A reaction. Hopefully that he might turn around, that something might have happened, that the pass would be accepted and we might take that further in a direction which we both would be happy."

Heywood put it to Evans that he wanted to have sex with the student. "I don't know. I don't know what would've happened that night," the MP replied.

Heywood suggested that the young man had made clear he was not interested in sexual contact, which the MP denied. As exchanges with the prosecutor grew increasingly fractious, the MP snapped: "Mr Heywood, you're not listening to what I'm saying."

The MP has pleaded not guilty to one rape, two indecent assaults, five sexual assaults and one attempted sexual assault. The trial continues.