A man has gone on trial accused of raping a lawyer who claims she was too drunk to have agreed to sex. The alleged victim said she found Peter Bacon lying naked next to her in bed one morning with no memory of what had gone before.
She immediately accused the chef of taking advantage of her, shouting: 'It's because of b******s like you that the law has been changed.'
Prosecutor Kerry Malin said the woman was referring to a 2007 legal ruling that someone who is drunk may not be capable of giving consent. 'She told him she was a lawyer and knew it was rape if she was unable to say yes. She had no capacity to say yes,' added Miss Malin.
The woman was still twice the drink-drive limit later that day when she had a medical examination. Tests proved the pair did have sex.
Bacon, 26, voluntarily went to a police station and told them what the lawyer had said when he woke up in her bed. He said he wanted to find out what his legal position was but was arrested and later charged.
The lawyer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been drinking heavily on the night of the alleged attack, Winchester Crown Court was told. She shared a meal and four bottles of wine with her former flatmate, who then invited Bacon over to the house for a few drinks. By that stage the lawyer said she was so drunk that she cannot remember the chef arriving or her former flatmate leaving half an hour later. But the court heard the woman, who is in her 30s, then shared another two bottles of wine with Bacon before going to bed. She woke the next morning to find him lying naked behind her with her underwear, jumper and trousers lying jumbled in a pile next to the bed.
She said: 'I came to and was aware of somebody lying next to me. I was lying on my side and someone was behind me with their hand on my left breast. I was terribly shocked and I was hyperventilating. I thought it was possible that I had had sex but did not know until I went for a medical examination. I was too drunk to consent to anything. I swore at him and said "It's because of b******s like you that the law has been changed".
Judith Khan, defending, claimed that the woman had consented at every stage of sexual activity during the alleged assault on February 17 last year. During cross-examination, she told the woman: 'You got into the bed first and Mr Bacon got in after you. You helped him to remove your clothing.' She said that she had performed a sex act on him and then had sex. 'Throughout, you were participating in all areas of sexual activity. At no stage were you unwilling to participate. The next morning you asked him if you had had sex and he said yes. You may have regretted what happened the night before but you had fully participated and consented with what went on between you.'
Bacon, of Canterbury in Kent, denies rape. The trial continues.
The GOS says: So a drunken woman isn't responsible for her actions but a drunken man is? And the woman's identity can be protected but the man's can't?
Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
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