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A soldier accused of raping and urinating on a young woman during a sustained violent attack told police he had been involved in domination sex play because ‘that’s the kind of role a lot of women I’ve been with enjoy’, a trial has heard.
Sam Evans, 28, denies two counts of rape; one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm; three counts of sexual assault; and one count of intentionally strangling the woman.
Asked if he liked to dominate or be dominated, he replied ‘either or’ but added he was more likely to be the dominant because ‘that’s the kind of role a lot of women I’ve been with enjoy’.
The court was told Evans said in a police interview he ‘did have my hand around her neck at one point’ but insisted he repeatedly asked her if this was okay.
The defendant also said he would admit to being ‘a bit heavy-handed’.
The second day of a trial at Plymouth Crown Court heard Evans is a Corporal in 29 Commando, Royal Artillery Regiment, a British Army unit based in Plymouth.
Sam Evans, 28, denies two counts of rape; one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm; three counts of sexual assault; and one count of intentionally strangling the woman
The court previously heard how Evans had connected with the complainant on a dating app and they exchanged messages via a social messaging app having swapped numbers, but had never met until the early hours of July 3 last year.
The woman told the jury that she recalled very little from the moment she left a Plymouth nightclub until she ‘came around’ on a bed in Evans’s flat. She went on to claim that Evans repeatedly assaulted her, both physically and sexually, and urinated on her.
Daniel Pawson-Pounds, prosecuting, questioned lead investigator Detective Constable Lee Tucker about the interview he conducted with Evans following his arrest on July 7.
A transcript of the interview was read out in court with Mr Pawson-Pounds reading out Evans’s responses.
Asked if he had raped the woman, Evans said no, but accepted he did have sexual intercourse with her.
He claimed they had indulged in foreplay, such as touching and kissing, before he had full sex with her in the missionary position.
Evans said he was ‘quite intense’, adding that it was ‘normal sex’ but that he was ‘being a bit keen, if you know what I mean’.
Evans said he ‘did have my hand around her neck at one point’ but insisted he repeatedly asked her if this was okay.
The defendant said he would admit to being ‘a bit heavy-handed’ and that the complainant was saying stop, but claimed that ‘she seemed to be enjoying it – there was no negative emotion, it was all positive’.
Asked if he did anything like choking her, Evans replied: ‘Ever so slightly – I remember asking her if that was okay’, adding that she seemed a ‘bit startled’.
He claimed they went for a cigarette on his balcony where he again asked her if she was okay, to which she replied: ‘Yeah, I’m absolutely fine – just be nice.’
Evans claimed they returned to his bedroom and lay on the bed, fell asleep and then woke up with more foreplay.
He said that a sex toy he had previously introduced – which the woman had refused – had been put away by him, but this time she asked him to get it.
Evans denied that he spat in the woman’s face, slapped her, or knelt on her chest
Evans said he got the vibrator out and ‘I plugged it in for her’, before she then used it on herself while he lay beside her.
He told police he put his hands around her face but she told him she would not orgasm with his hands ‘around my neck’.
He told police this went on for ‘maybe 15 minutes’ with her using his hands to stimulate her vagina but ‘that’s when she realised her phone was missing, so she was saying: ‘Can you find my phone?’ by ringing it.’
Evans said he offered to give the woman a lift home, offered her a purple Santa Cruz T-shirt of his to wear, and then took her home.
Questioned further by police about the choking element, Evans said: ‘It’s something I know some people enjoy more often than not’.
Asked why he had put his hands around her face, he suggested this was a way of showing affection and ‘to give her pleasure’.
Evans denied that he spat in the woman’s face, slapped her, or knelt on her chest.
He said he did not believe he caused the injuries shown to him in photographs taken of the woman after she attended Derriford Hospital’s A&E department.
Police said they had carried out a search of Evans’s bedroom following his arrest and they found a number of items including nipple toys, a butt plug, and a ball gag, which Evans said was ‘to please myself and women that I’m with’.
He said he used the items because he got pleasure from other people having pleasure.
He admitted that the items were bought ‘for bondage play’ with an ex-partner but said he had not used them because they shortly after the purchase they had stopped seeing each other.
Evans was asked if he used ‘safe words’, to which he agreed. Asked if he liked to dominate or be dominated, he replied ‘either or’ but added he was more likely to be the dominant because ‘that’s the kind of role a lot of women I’ve been with enjoy’.
Asked what the ‘safe word’ he had suggested to the complainant, Evans said: ‘I think it was ‘banana’.’ But he said he was concerned she ‘might not remember it’ so suggested she use her own name. He insisted he did discuss this with her, but could not be certain if this discussion took place before or during full sex, the court heard.
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Evans said the pair went back to his place and ‘it was implied that we would have sexual contact’.
He claimed that when he took her home later the same morning their discussion in his campervan was about where her missing mobile phone might be. He said he asked her if she ‘had a good time’ to which she replied: ‘Yeah, she seemed quite happy’.
Evans said he asked her: ‘You sure you are okay? I was quite rough at points’, but she said she was ‘absolutely fine’ adding that ‘she enjoyed it’.
He said he could not remember putting his penis into her mouth, did not punch her, and did not anally rape her.
He said he did not think she was unconscious at any point. Asked if he had squeezed her throat ‘so hard that she went unconscious’ Evans replied: ‘I like to think not.’
The jury had previously heard from the complainant, who described how Evans had stood over her and urinated over her face and top, with urine going into her mouth when she cried out.
Evans said he did not ‘recall’ this, but then revealed that he ‘did urinate on the bed next to her – I can’t tell you why’.
He insisted he did not mean to do this to degrade her. He told police he had done this act ‘before’ and when asked why he did this he said it was ‘something new to explore’
Asked if this was ‘new for you’, Evans replied: ‘Not entirely.’
Asked if he told the woman he was going to do this, Evans replied: ‘No’ adding that she did not ‘seem happy’ and he stopped.
He said he did not recall urinating on her clothing and he later washed his sheet, duvet and pillow cases. He denied saying to her: ‘You probably think I’m a psychopath now’ and: ‘You’re lucky there are other people here.’
The jury also heard a statement from the complainant’s mother, who said she was shocked at the state of her daughter when she knocked on her front door later on July 3.
She said her daughter looked ‘dishevelled’, her complexion was pale, and her hair looked a mess. The complainant told her mother ‘it’s bad mum, really bad’ and she ‘seemed to be in shock’.
The complainant said she had been ‘strangled’ by a man and her mother saw bruising on her chest, collar bone, arms and swelling to her face.
The mother stated that her daughter wanted her to stay with her as she took a shower as she did not want to be alone, but that she ‘kept calling out in pain when she was in the shower’.
The mother’s statement, read out by Mr Pawson-Pounds, revealed that the complainant repeatedly stated she did not want to alert the police but did go to the hospital later that day.
She was not seen until the next morning and staff immediately became concerned for her after she explained how she came by her injuries, the court heard. She said her daughter had told her the accused had called her phone while they were in his flat ‘and said he could hear it ringing’.
She wrote that her daughter ‘did not appear to be herself’ and was ‘frightened by the whole police procedure, frightened of going to court, frightened that the male was going to come and kill her’.
The jury heard a statement from a doorman at a Plymouth pub who knows the complainant and is friends with her. He was working that night and morning and said he saw her with a man he later learned was from 29 Commando – Evans.
The doorman told police the complainant ‘seemed happy’ and had told him she was having a good time. He stated that the pair appeared to be enjoying each other’s company.
He later saw the complainant being followed out by a different man, who he described as ‘a bit of a creep’, and asked her if she was okay and if she wanted to ‘go home with’ Evans instead.
The doorman noted that the complainant appeared ‘intoxicated’ and that Evans was not as drunk. The doorman told police he asked Evans to ‘make sure [she] got home safely’ and the defendant was ‘in agreement’ so they ‘fist-bumped’.
The doorman said a couple of days later the complainant texted him to say that the man she had left with was ‘not very nice’.
The jury also heard from a member of staff from the hospital who said the complainant appeared ‘timid and quiet – quite reserved’ and that she appeared to be in a lot of pain and that her injuries were visible.
The complainant had told the hospital worker that she had been assaulted by a man, had been struck around the head and smothered with a pillow. However, asked to name him, she repeatedly declined, but did say he was ‘in the military’. The complainant later claimed that she had been assaulted ‘physically and sexually’ by the man.
The hospital worker said the complainant said she was ’embarrassed’ about the situation and regretted that she let the man take her home because ‘now he knew where she lived.’
The medic said she reassured the young woman that it was not her fault. She said the complainant was ‘quite tearful’.
Taking to the witness box, Evans confirmed he is a soldier in the British Army, joining in 2013 at the age of 19.
He said he first trained with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as an armourer, repairing, maintaining and servicing weapon systems. He then went onto the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, the the 1st Regiment Army Air Corps before joining 29 Commando.
Occasionally pausing to compose himself, Evans answered a series of questions from his defence barrister, Michael Green. He confirmed the meaning and usage of a ‘safe word’, which is used to ensure someone would stop what they were doing during sex and admitted he had played a dominant role with previous sexual partners.
He said that on that night he went out with four other friends, drinking two to three pints of cider in The Stable, then another pint in The Swallow, then two or three doubles in Club 27 and two more doubles in OMG before heading to a nightclub.
After losing his friends he said he saw the young woman and recognised her. He claimed she said she was going to go to a bar and that he was initially intending to go home on his own, but she convinced him to go with her.
He said that in the taxi she had loudly insisted they not head towards his home to drop him off, but that the driver should go to meet her friend.
Evans, of Devonport, Plymouth, denies all charges. The trial continues.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
