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MP Nigel Evans sex trial: 'Drunken behaviour, not criminal acts', jury told | MP Nigel Evans sex trial: 'Drunken behaviour, not criminal acts', jury told |
(35 minutes later) | |
The jury at the sex abuse trial of former deputy speaker Nigel Evans has been told to distinguish between drunken behaviour and criminal acts. | The jury at the sex abuse trial of former deputy speaker Nigel Evans has been told to distinguish between drunken behaviour and criminal acts. |
Peter Wright QC, defending the Ribble Valley MP, delivered his closing speech at Preston Crown Court. | Peter Wright QC, defending the Ribble Valley MP, delivered his closing speech at Preston Crown Court. |
Mr Wright said the alleged rape victim had told "deliberate untruths" and that other complainants' evidence "did not add up". | |
Mr Evans, 56, denies rape, two indecent assaults and six sexual assaults. | Mr Evans, 56, denies rape, two indecent assaults and six sexual assaults. |
'Saving his conscience' | |
The MP is alleged to have committed the offences against seven young men between 2002 and last year. | The MP is alleged to have committed the offences against seven young men between 2002 and last year. |
Mr Wright claimed there were inconsistencies in the accounts given and questioned the credibility of the evidence against Mr Evans. | |
The barrister said of the most serious allegation, the alleged rape, that the man now regretted having sex with Mr Evans, but this did not make the MP a guilty man. | |
The complainant, aged 22, told the jury Mr Evans raped him after a dinner party at the defendant's home in Pendleton, Lancashire, in March last year. | |
Mr Evans told the court the sex was consensual. | |
Mr Wright said the young man had told "deliberate untruths" in the account given to police and to the jury to make himself "more convincing". | |
He pointed to a series of inconsistencies between what he told officers and what he told the jury; there was no pushing on to the bed, no forcible undoing of trousers, no struggle to push his attacker off. | |
'Not abusing his position' | |
He added: "In the cold light of day, the complainant may regret what had taken place and how far it had actually gone. | |
"Saving his conscience is not the basis on which to convict a man of rape and sexual assault." | |
In 2003, Mr Evans is alleged to have indecently assaulted two men in their 20s by putting his hand down their trousers in a bar in two separate incidents. One is said to have happened in a Soho bar and the other at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool during the 2003 Conservative Party conference. | |
Mr Wright told the jury they showed a "drunken over-familiarity" and "inappropriate behaviour by a drunken man" not an indecent assault nor the actions of a politician abusing his position, as the prosecution claims. | |
Mr Justice King has started summing up the case and will continue to do so on Tuesday. |
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